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Colorado, Part 2: Iconic American Wildlife

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Before I left for Colorado I made two wish lists, one for new birds and one for wildlife.  As a large western state with high elevations, the Rocky Mountains and eastern plains, it offers a wide range of wildlife not seen in my smaller, coastal New Jersey.  I appreciate that I can sit on a beach near home and see whales and dolphins, but I won’t run into a moose or elk anywhere in the Garden State.  There were many wild animals I wanted to see, but only a few days to see what I could.  There was a potential list of dozens of animals that could be seen besides birds that included snakes, lizards, butterflies, moths, dragonflies and other insects.  However, I kept my list short and reasonable with mostly mammals as targets. Summit of Mt. Blue Sky Interpretive Area.   © S. Weiss Denver, Colorado is nicknamed The Mile High City because it is 5,280 feet above sea level.  Evergreen, CO (our base for the trip) is almost 2,000 feet higher.  The sign abov...
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Colorado, Part 1: Five New Birds and a New Nemesis Bird

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   After several years of wanting to visit Colorado, my wife and I finally made it out to the Midwest.  My cousin moved out there over a decade ago and visiting him and his wife had always been a reason to go.  We saw them last November when they were back in New Jersey and discussed when would be a good to time visit.  My only requests were to visit when the chance of being snowbound was nil and when could we see most of the resident wildlife.  Early to mid-July turned out to be the best window of opportunity.  To avoid yet another year of could have/should have , we booked our flights earlier this year and flew out for four days this past weekend.   Some of the scenic beauty of Colorado.   © S. Weiss Our destination was the beautiful, unincorporated town of Evergreen, just about an hour west of Denver.  As I usually do when traveling to a new destination, I researched and made a wish list of things I wanted to see.  I ha...
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5/16/2026 - Stellwagen Bank: Baby Whale & White-sided Dolphins

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     A couple weekends back I forewent a peak bird migration locally and took a trip to Rhode Island.  My wife and I met up with my daughter and son-in-law, and we all took a whale watching excursion out of Plymouth, MA.  Some of the birds I miss in May I can look for in September and October when they return south.  They just might not be as colorful as they were going north. The whale watching fleets in Massachusetts tour Stellwagen Bank.  Stellwagen Bank is an 842 square mile national marine sanctuary situated in the Gulf of Maine, between Cape Anne and Cape Cod.  It is an important feeding ground for several species of whales, such as humpbacks , minke , fin , sei and right whales .  My daughter and I took one of these trips last summer and had great, up-close views of humpback whales resting at the surface, oblivious to our presence.  My wife has joined me on a few local trips out of Cape May, NJ.  This was my son-in-law’s firs...
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5/30/26 - Migrating Shorebirds & a Fossil

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       Over the past weekend, before the temperatures got hot, spring migrants finally appeared in numbers that many local birders had been anticipating.  I, on the other hand, spent the weekend away.  I knew a late migratory push was due to happen, but I was okay with that.  Really. On Tuesday I took a walk on some trails at Island Beach State Park with a friend to see if any of the migrant birds were still around.  The short answer is not really.  On Wednesday I changed it up a bit and took a solo walk along the beach at the southern end of Island Beach from the end of the paved road to the backside of the inlet, a round-trip hike of about five miles.  It was near 90 degrees when I left my house on the mainland, but it was about 30 degrees cooler at the beach.  As it has been for most of the year, there was not much to see bird-wise on the beach or out on the ocean though I did pick up my first royal terns of the year.  Along...
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