Our camp.
Grand lake
I shouldn’t like the Steamboat RV Park as much as I do. It’s an old KOA; probably doesn’t meet their standards anymore. It’s a funky place. Lot’s of old rigs with people living in them as “affordable” housing. Back-to-back sites. Basically, a trailer park. But boy is it loaded with birds… and trees… and flowers. The Yampa River flows right through it, with an old bridge across the river to tent camping sites on the other side. I can make a circuitous walk following every road and every loop that takes about half an hour to do one lap. But that’s it for Steamboat. There is a repertory theatre in Grand Lake that needs attention. We worked at the coach in the morning, left by eleven, had lunch at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass (our third time over that pass in the last ten days), drove down to Kremmling, and followed the Colorado River northeast to Grand Lake, the western portal to Rocky Mountain National Park. We’re high here, 8,500 feet, and rugged. The RV Park has streams all through it, and sites cut into the willows and forest. It’s like a forest service park, (which we have generally sized ourselves out of), but we can fit here, and it has full hookups! What a fun place to be. Our first walk outside the coach, we found ourselves within ten feet of a yearling moose, standing on the other side of a willow, munching his way through the bush towards us. Hummingbirds, juncos, moose, a red fox crossed the trail within three feet of me. Yes. This is where we want to be.
Steamboat
We’re back with the orioles. Orioles are common here. The local stores recognize that and even sell a specific oriole feeder. It’s like a big hummingbird feeder, except it has orange food in it, and a big picture of an orange on it. Orioles like oranges. We know because last time we were here, we put out a big slice of orange on the bird feeder, and the oriole used to fly right over and stand next to it while contemplating how best to get at the hummingbird feeder and get all that yummy hummingbird food. But this trip is different. We now have the oriole feeder on the bird feeding rack. The oriole feeder looks really good there, hanging from the bird feeder rack while the oriole feeds from the little hummingbird feeder on the window.
Life bird
Last week while we were in Steamboat, we checked out Steamboat Lake State Park and Pearl Lake State Park, about twenty-five miles north of town. We heard bird calls from the treetops we couldn’t identify, but never got the birds in the field glasses so we didn’t know what we were hearing. I recorded the calls, though, and over the next few days searched the birding program on the computer for it. I finally found it. Red Crossbills. Red Crossbills. We’ve never seen that bird. So tonight after work, we went straight back to Pearl Lake State Park. It’s still closed for the season, but we could hike in. High country forest. We got there and it was silent; not a bird to be heard. Judy asked what the crossbill call sounded like, so I played it back for her on the digital recorder. As soon as I played it, red crossbills flew in from all over and answered the call. We got great looks at them. Life bird. Gorgeous park too.
Steamboat
Done with the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont. South on Sunday morning through the Denver Metro area and up the grades at Genesee and Floyd Hill on Interstate 70, through Idaho Springs, past the giant water wheel, and hang a right on US 40 over Berthoud Pass. A cruise through Winter Park, Granby, Hot Sulphur Springs, and Kremmling. Over Rabbit Ears pass and coast down to Steamboat Springs by lunch. Last week while we were here, the Orioles sucked all the food out of the hummingbird feeders. When the window feeder had been drained, one particular Oriole would cling to the window ledge directly opposite me and squawk until I refilled it. This week, we’re still surrounded by Orioles, Kingbirds, Robins, and Swallows, but the only birds on the hummingbird feeder have been black chinned hummingbirds. This week’s bonus bird… Yellow Warblers. Saw several, and heard maybe a dozen.