ACES Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch 06/09/26

Our outing this morning had several exciting highlights, starting with a pair of blue-winged teals on the first pond, Say’s phoebes foraging in the pasture, and yellow warblers in the weeping willows. We checked the great horned owl nesting tree and it was vacant; presumably the chick has recently fledged. We saw parts of bird prey and pellets below the tree and discussed the array of prey that these owls eat. In the pollinator garden, we watched the Lewis’s woodpecker family, a black-headed grosbeak, and wrens. Further along the trail, we saw tree swallows in nesting cavities and mallards molting into eclipse plumage. We explored a new birding trail that is being developed, and found a willow flycatcher and a Virginia rail out in the more extensive willow wetlands. It was a fun morning with thirty species observed! Join us for City of Aspen Open Space birding at Ute Cemetery on June 11th!