Valentine NWR, NE and Pine Valley Park, CO - November 26th - 30th, 2004

Having written off my August trip to Colorado and Nebraska as something off a disaster, I was determined to do better this time. Unfortunately, determination isn't always enough. Upon landing in Denver and picking up my rental car, I drove straight to Valentine National Wildlife Refuge, 400 miles away. I pulled into the Pony Lakes Subunit where Refuge Manager Mark Lindvall indicated I had a good chance of seeing my three target birds: Greater Prairie-Chicken; Sharp-tailed Grouse; and Ring-necked Pheasant. My goal was to see all three birds early enough to allow me to get back to Denver at a reasonable hour.

After a few hours of chilly, restless car sleep at the end of the Pony Lakes Road, I awoke just as the sun was hinting at an appearance, and started to make my way back to the highway. The lakes were full of Mallards, Buffleheads, shovelers and pintails a long with smaller numbers of Common Goldeneye and even a few Trumpter Swans. Within about ten minutes, and with the light still poor, I saw a game bird fly into the adjacent field. Quickly snatching my binoculars, I was able to make out only the silhouette of a head, which quickly ducked back down out of view. Surely a Greater Prairie-Chicken, but I needed a much better look that than. So I grabbed my scope, braced for the blast of cold air outside, and cautiously made my way into the field. Not cautiously enough, I learned, as about seven of these birds flushed from fifty feet, flying directly away and then into the adjacent hills*. There were no sign of the Grouse or Pheasants. Mark had indicated that they liked to sun themselves in the trees in the early morning, but the sun remained hidded behind dark gray clouds.

* Basically sand dunes covered with vegetation, these hills are actually called sandhills. Hence the name for Sandhill Cranes I assume.

One of the most frustrating, but quite common, experiences in finding life birds is when your first looks come right out of the gate and you then have to spend hours getting satisfactory looks (or you fail altogether). I was about to have one of those experiences. Using common sense, I took a rough trail adjacent to a wooded area into the hills where the birds had appeared to settle in. But when I didn't see any trace of the birds within the first half hour, I got impatient, and decided to drive up to the main headquarters to solicit some help, and also hoping I'd find a public bathroom.

On the way, it began to rain hard, and I wondered how the weather would affect the patterns of my target birds. It turned out that the headquarters was more of a facilities headquarters than a place for visitors. There were apparently no public restrooms anywhere on the refuge at this time of year, not even portapotties. I did finally track down a very helpful Ranger named Mel who circled some good spots on a map where I "might be able to kick of a grouse" and some other spots that were good for pheasants. For the Prairie-Chickens, he directed me back to the Pony Lakes, giving me some tips on where I might have better luck in that location.

I followed Mel's map to a nearby hill and started walking methodically in an ever tightening circle around on of the many windmills that dotted the landscape, but I failed to flush any grouse. I did manage to spot my first Ring-necked Pheasant dropping into a marshy area about one hundred yards away. I spent a half hour trying to find it again, to no avail, but my spirits were higher knowing that I wouldn't leave Nebraska empty handed. Then again, we weren't exactly talking about the rarest of birds, and any decent birder hearing that I flew to denver and then drove 400 miles just for Ring-necked Pheasant would probably get more than a chuckle.

I tried several other locations on Mel's map but had no luck. Taking a more scenic route back to Pony Lake allowed me to enjoy a seemingly endless chain of lakes, each with a slightly different assortment of the same basic waterfowl. I drove again to the end of the Pony Lakes Road, but this time I got out of my car and waded through tall reeds and grass along the fence line until I was in view of the private farm that sits in the refuge. I was told that if cows were being fed on the pasture, Greater Prairie-Chickens would be very likely. But there were no cows or prairie-chickens, just a curious horse who trotted up to check me out.

On the walk back I flushed numerous Ring-necked Pheasants and one bird that I thought was not a Ring-necked Pheasant but may well have been. The sun was quickly fading and I had a decision to make. I could drive back to Colorado with no Sharp-tailed Grouse and very unsatisfying looks at Greater Prairie-Chicken, or I could stay overnight and try again in the morning. Since I felt my Colorado target birds were very spread out and less than certain, it made sense to try and get better looks at the birds here, so I checked into a Valentine hotel and tried my luck the next day.

It wasn't much better, at least in the morning. This time, I parked my car exactly where the Prairie-chickens had flushed the day before and waited patiently for a repeat performance. It never came. I did get even better looks at Ring-neck Pheasants along the Pony Lakes Road on my drive back to headquarters, but re-checking all of the same spots and then some failed to turn up any other game birds. I returned again to Pony Lakes, again skirted the fence line to the private pasture, and again piqued the curiosity of the resident horse.

As a last gasp measure to try and harvest some measure of success from this trip, I again walked the old road back up into the hills that the Prairie-chickens had escaped to the day before. This time I was a little more patient and I soon flushed a bird, getting my best looks so far. A little more walking produced another bird, and then another, and soon I noticed that flocks of 8 - 15 birds were flying around from hill to hill. I spent several hours trying to sneak up on the birds, but they were always one step ahead, and I was never able to get a bird in my scope. Yet I had so much fun with this game of hide and seek that I was tempted to stay another day.

This time, however, common sense kicked in. There were reports of snow, and I was now down to a day and a half to look for Three-toed Woodpecker, Rosy Finches, and any other Colorado game birds I might have time for. As the sun went down, I got into my car and began the long trek back to Denver. I made great time until the snow got extremely heavy about 100 miles from the city. There were numerous accidents, some serious, all along I-76. I checked into a Motel-6 just past downtown Denver, and began plotting my visit to the Buck Gulch Trail at Pine Valley Ranch Park.

Driving was still fairly treacherous and it took several hours to get back to my motel. Having written off my other target birds, my plan was to return to Buck Gulch Trail by 7 AM the next morning, hoping an earlier start would make a difference. It just so happened that the Sunday Night Football game was the Oakland Raiders at the Denver Broncos, so I was able to keep a close eye on the weather just by watching the game. It didn't look good. At 5 AM, the local news was showing slick roads and abandoned cars, and I had to accept that I was going home with just two new birds, one of which I could have found in California. I rounded out my trip at Barr Lake State Park, near the airport, where I was treated to Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, a Northern Harrier, and gobs of the formerly elusive Ring-necked Pheasant.

It was tough to come up so short this late in the year after so much effort and cost, but I did have fun and I was happy to have visited Valentine NWR, which was not a typical Big Year checkpoint. Now my thoughts were on one last trip to Texas.