[JeffMoh]

I did 8 hours of birding around Denver between 5:30 pm July 26 and 4:30 pm July 27. The weather was sunny and very hot.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARSENAL
I did an hour at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal on July 26, two hours the next dawn and another hour that afternoon. Beautiful prairie landscape and vegetation, nice ponds/lakes, lots of deer, prairie dogs and rabbits.

The entrance road had one each of Swainson's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel and Am Crow, plus 12 W Kingbirds, 4 E Kingbirds, 3 W Meadowlarks and a few each of: Brewers's Blackbird, European Starling, Common Grackle and Mourning Dove. A solitary California Gull and 4 Canada Geese passed over.

The Visitor Center had 7 House Finches and the nearby ponds had many Red-winged Blackbirds.

At various times on July 27, Lake Ladora and the path around it had: 3 White Pelicans, 25 Eared Grebes, 20 Double-crested Cormorants, 2 Snowy Egrets, 2 Belted Kingfishers, 2 Western Kingbirds, 3 American Robins, 4 Tree Swallows, 9 Barn Swallows and 2 Lark Sparrows.

CHATFIELD STATE PARK
I had 2-2.5 hours there on the morning of July 27, mainly around Kingfisher Bridge. Mosquitoes were unbelievably bad -and I live in southeast Texas!

The lake and its edge had only one Double-crested Cormorant and one Great Blue Heron. The woods around the Kingfisher parking area had: 1 W Kingbird, 1 Western Wood-pewee, 6 Black-capped Chickadees, 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 4 Yellow Warblers, 1 Song Sparrow, 1 White-crowned Sparrow, 1 Am Goldfinch and 4 Lesser Goldfinch.

Around Kingfisher Bridge there were 2 Larek Sparrows and 2 Am Pipits.

ROXBOROUGH STATE PARK
I spent 2 hours there around noon and did the Willow Creek Trail. Beautiful landscape with spectacular, colorful rock formations and interesting plants, plus plenty of butterflies.

The time was wrong for birds. All I saw: 1 Spotted Towhee and 1 W Scrub Jay on the trail, and two Broad-tailed Hummingbirds at the Visitor Center.

YOU CAN SEE PHOTOS AT:
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com