Day 19 – heading back towards Denver

Stunning scenery at Two Buttes SP and some good birding too

We started the day at Two Buttes State Park looking for Ladder-backed Woodpecker and hoping to catch more early migrants. The scenery was awesome and our target was quickly located – a pair actually, but they were always in the tops of the trees. We did also add another warbler to the list, this time Tennessee. Next we dropped in on the Lamar Community College, where they have a nature trail behind the campus. Unfortunately we failed to ‘do the double’ with Red-headed Woodpecker – which is proving tricky. Lunch was taken visiting several sites around the John Martin Reservoir State Park and although the various habitats looked good we failed to add anything new to the list. Ferruginous Hawk was a much needed addition on route to our final couple of stops – two adjacent inland saline water bodies – Cheraw Lake and Holbrook Reservoir. Both locations produced the goods – at the first we got reasonable views of breeding (?) Snowy Plover and at the later, two more water birds – Common Loon and Red-breasted Merganser. Oh and another Snow Goose! – this one being a first winter bird.

We’d tried several locations for this elusive species before tracking it down at Two Buttes SP – the appropriately named Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Another plover we weren’t expecting – Snowy, in perfect breeding habitat
Book-ending this blog, another scenic shot – this time of Cheraw Lake – the natural salt deposits making a perfect backdrop for the Snowy Plover
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