Revisiting the Pawnee Grasslands

Pronghorn Doe with her fawn at the Pawnee Grasslands

Instead of touring the main park this morning, I drove to the Pawnee National Grasslands. The grasslands are north east of Denver, just below Wyoming's state border. Arriving at a first bit of the grasslands I was a tad disoriented but after finding some of the information boards, it all came back to me.

Grassland informational kiosk thingie

 Huzzah! BIRDIES!






So off I went on my driving tour of the grasslands. My previous visit(s) were 2008 and 2011. being springtime there were loads of birds then. *sigh* That that was then. This is AUGUST. What birds I found seemed to look a little out of sorts.

Out of Sorts Lark Bunting

Other Lark Buntings just looked cranky and sort of HOT.

Horned Lark, also fond of perching on barbed wire

Not unlike Wyoming, this part of Colorado seems plum full up with Pronghorns.

Buck Pronghorn grazing

Another doe Pronghorn, this one with twins

 And guess what? Pronghorns!

Gotta love those fluff bums

Yes, loads of Pronghorn, scattered across the grasslands. But for birds? What few were around were easy to spot. 

Little male American Kestrel

So for a morning's birding how many species did I find? Four. A miserable tally by any measure. The Kestrel, a few Lark Buntings, Horned Larks and Western Meadowlarks, and that's it. Now. Do I blame the birdies? Heck no! It was too hot for me to walk around, too hot for them too. That's a BS explanation but I'm sticking to it.

How about a quick vid of Pronghorns fleeing to the sound of a dramatic soundtrack from Dances with Wolves? The soundtrack was actually playing when I filmed this because - yet again - I forgot to turn off the car radio. Enjoy... this always cracks me up.