I attended the Ute Mountain Mesa Verde Birding Festival in Cortez, Colorado this past weekend—as a vendor, a birding guide, and I went birding in my free time. What a fun, exhausting experience!

I drove up early Wednesday morning and set up my vendor booth and staffed it until about 7:30 that evening. Thank heavens for daylight savings! I had time to go scouting for my scheduled bird walk the next morning.

Thursday morning, I led a festival-sponsored bird walk to Happy Valley Draw and Hawkins Preserve. I felt a little disappointed with our species count, as it was a quiet morning overall. However, there were some highlights. We saw a male western tanager, a male Bullock’s oriole, and a yellow-breasted chat.

After the bird walk, I manned my vendor booth until about 7:30 p.m. and immediately headed out to scout the area for my bird walk the next day.

On Friday I led another festival-sponsored bird walk, to Denny Lake and Totten Reservoir. Highlights included a black-crowned night heron (considered rare for this location), a pair of ospreys actively hunting, and a good variety of swallow, warbler and sparrow species. In two hours, we saw 44 species at Denny Lake.

Our next stop was Totten Reservoir where we saw 35 species, including black-billed magpie, western meadowlark, Wilson’s phalaropes, and both California and Franklin’s gulls. When the birding ended, I went back to my booth until the day’s festivities concluded.

That evening, I drove north of Dolores, into the San Juan National Forest. I wanted to get up into a forested habitat. I had an amazing time, adding a number of species to my trip list, such as western bluebirds, Grace’s warbler, Townsend’s solitaire, evening grosbeak and Cassin’s finches. But the best was yet to come!

My best bird of the day was an American three-toed Woodpecker. This species is fairly uncommon, and not frequently observed. I got lucky! I heard a drumming sound on the trunk of a tree and tracked it down, only to find the woodpecker exfoliating the bark off of a dead pine tree. Thrilling!

When I got back to my hotel Friday night, I updated my trip bird list. I was at 96 species. My goal was to get to 100 species in Colorado before I left.

Saturday morning, I led yet another festival-sponsored bird walk, to Geer Natural Area. This place has marshy wetlands and a small reservoir. Unfortunately, it was a super quiet morning.

Finding birds was challenging, let alone new birds for my trip list. By the time the bird walk was over, I had only added two more species to my trip list: sora and Wilson’s snipe. I was disappointed that I would not hit 100 species for the trip.

Once again, I manned my Swarovski and Vortex optics booth until it was time to pack up. It was time to drive home; my birding was over. Or was it? After I had been on the road for about twenty minutes I happened to notice a wastewater treatment plant in the distance.

On a whim, I headed in that direction. In minutes, I had two new species for my trip list: American avocet and green-winged teal. However, I observed additional new birds including black phoebe, American wigeon, blue-winged teal, eared grebe and least sandpipers. It was amazing!

As I was getting back onto the highway, another thrill was awaiting me. I spotted a large prairie falcon flying next to the highway. I pulled over as it landed on a telephone pole and I got my scope on it. Species number 106!

Until next week, Happy Birding!

Eric Moore is the owner of The Lookout, in Prescott, where you will find a Hallmark Gold Crown Store, wild bird products, and Swarovski and Vortex optics. Eric has been an avid birder for over 55 years. Eric can be contacted at eric@thelookoutaz.com.