Morning Birding Species List | November 5, 2013

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Throughout the fall, winter and spring ACES offers monthly Morning Birding classes at our Hallam Lake site in Aspen. Class outings venture to local birding hotspots and the birds never fail to impress. Take a look at the below species list and notes from one of the recent classes and register today for upcoming birding classes!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013, 7:30 AM – 10:30 AM
Weather:  snowing lightly and 4″ of snow on the ground
Locations: Hallam Lake and lower Hunter Creek Trail

Species Identified
Canada Goose Mallard Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck (pictured above) Pied-billed Grebe Belted Kingfisher		Steller’s Jay Black-billed Magpie American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Mountain Chickadee American Dipper

Comments:  It was a fantastic morning, very wintery and refreshing, snow softly falling, beautiful light, bear tracks at Hallam Lake and along the Hunter Creek Trail. A pair of mallards and a dipper foraged casually near the base of the spawning channel while spawning brook trout thrashed nearby, their dorsal and tail fins sticking up out of the shallow water.  We saw a beaver swimming and noted the size of their food cache which is much bigger this year than last (we think the beavers expect a big winter!). Bird behavior is now so different from summer avian activities, and we were rewarded with fascinating observations, such such as the mixed flocks of water fowl foraging together on the open water.

~Rebecca Weiss, ACES Naturalist