Day 1's post can be found at http://birdingwithtucker.blogspot.com/2009/09/at-8-in-morning-on-july-19-my-they.html. This post is way overdue so here it goes-Early in the morning, only about 30 minutes from Denver, I struggled to see the large snow draped (in some places) mountains called the Rockies through the morning haze that had not yet lifted. Even though they themselves were hard to see, it wasn't hard to see that they were indeed as grand as many people say. I was a bit anxious to get out of the motor home and go do some exploring for birds but I was going to have to wait until later because we had a ways to travel this day, all the way to New Mexico.The closer we got to Denver the easier the mountains were to see. Looking skyward I saw a flock of California Gulls fly over, the first life bird of the trip which put me at 314. All life birds I see on this trip will be in bold. Downtown Denver was pretty impressive at least compared to the downtown areas where I live.
After Denver we made it to Colorado Springs where we had lunch. We were able to see Pikes Peak (below) from there and I was able to look for a few birds, but couldn't find many since we were right off the interstate at a restaurant. Black-billed Magpies and Common Ravens were numerous there but the harsh afternoon sunlight was not good for picture taking.
We finally made a stop at a place called Royal Gorge (below) in Canon City. The gorge is 1,000+ ft deep. Since we were only going to be there for about a half hour we just looked at what we could see from outside the gates because it was $24.00 per person to get in. 
A flyover Lesser Goldfinch there was life bird 315 for me and the second one of the trip. Cholla Cactus were fairly numerous and in bloom there. The second picture down is of a Rock Squirrel which seemed more fond of the trees than of the rocks. I had never seen one of those before (that goes for the cactus as well).
After that it was off to Raton, NM for the night. New Mexico was a new state for me.
Today's post was still kind of boring and I got no bird pictures. Tomorrow's post will be better, I promise (there will even be some bird photos). One last photo before I finish this post-I saw and photographed a rainbow from the interstate in Southern Colorado after an afternoon monsoon. Tomorrow it's off to Albuquerque (and more birds)!
Gulls were already out and about on the lake. The steam and interesting lighting helped to make some cool photos.
Also seen on the way back was a Canada Goose family with six young ones. The "runt" (the bird with the red circle around it) in the group kept falling behind the rest. His future doesn't seem very bright.
I had a nice day of birding and got to go wading which I always enjoy doing. I had four year birds on the trip as well as a foy Swainson's Thrush in my yard the same morning which put my year list up to 159. Almost forgot to add that I saw a Red-headed Woodpecker, the first one I have seen in Iowa this year.
The most common bird there was the American Coot. They were all over the place in the thousands. Some birds were out of the water feeding on the grass. During the summer there is one particular location where they are all over the road and it is like the parting of the Red Sea as they run to get out of the way of your car.
I really liked this picture. It is not the prettiest or the sharpest but I loved that the coots were side by side, one with the wings up and one with the wings down as they took off. 
After our birdwatching around the lake we had to head home. We did howeverdo a little birdwatching when we stopped at a small city pond. It had a few "wild waterfowl" there including Wood Duck and Ross's Goose (pictured).
It was a good Friday for birding indeed with three new year birds and nice weather!
We also birded the river below the dam and saw Ring-billed and Herring Gulls but not much else. Roger, a local birdwatcher, took us out to a spot where there were several species of shorebirds present. Besides the ever annoying Killdeer we found Greater Yellowlegs, a FOY Dunlin, and over 40 FOY Baird's Sandpipers. 
After we had a great lunch we headed over to a marina on the Nebraska side of the lake (the SD-NE border runs down the middle of the lake) to see an active Bald Eagle nest. Much to our delight a Bald Eagle was sitting on the nest when we showed up. That was the first time I have seen an active nest.
Since it appeared that the grouse were not going to come, my dad and I birded Two Harbors, a town along Lake Superior. All we found were Herring Gulls, but one did have a deformed bill.
Not much else was seen that morning so we decided that it would be best to be on our way home. Split Rock Lighthouse was only a few miles up the north shore so we stopped there for a few minutes before we headed back.
The trip came to an end and we were headed home. I would like to thank my dad for the great trip, I could not have done it without him!
A bird feeder a few miles outside of town had redpolls and other various birds visiting so we headed there to try our luck on finding any interesting species. The first lifer of the day turned out to be a Hoary Redpoll. My life list was nearing 300, with only three to go. A couple female Pine Grosbeaks also popped in making my life list grow yet again, with 298 species. It has been a while since I've had so many life birds within such a short period of time.
The Hoary Redpoll escaped getting photographed but I did get some photos of the Common Redpolls. They were all over the place there and were easy to photograph.
This photo shows only a small portion of the hundreds of repolls that were there!
After we had our fill of looks at the redpolls we decided to move on. A Pileated Woodpecker gave us fleeting looks as it flew into the forest as we made our way back to the car. Lester Park was next on the itinerary. On the way over a Ruffed Grouse that was seen briefly in a woody draw along the road was my 299th life bird. That meant that I was only one away from 300! I kept wondering what my 300th bird would be. Would it be an Iceland Gull, Northern Hawk Owl, or even an unexpected bird? To find out what species it was keep reading.
A check for gulls down by the lake added an adult Glaucous Gull to the day list. We searched again for Snowy Owls but all that we found was a Coyote. A check of a local landfill revealed some interesting gulls such as Glaucous and Great Black-backed. An Iceland Gull was also seen flying above our heads. I frantically searched for it in the large group of gulls floating around the place. This would be a nice bird for three-hundred. But God had plans of His own. Before I had an opportunity to find the gull a call came in that a Boreal Owl was seen along a road about twenty minutes from the landfill. I decided that I better save the Iceland Gull for another day so I could have Boreal Owl as my 300th. The Boreal Owl is one of the top 10 most sought after birds in all of the ABA area. We wasted no time going over there to see the bird. I tried to avoid looking for any birds on the way over in case one of them would happen to be a new bird. I wanted Boreal Owl as my three-hundreth bird in the worst way. We pulled up to the location and searched along the roadside for it as we drove by. The birder who found it was there and said that we drove right past it! I looked right where it was and couldn't see it. No wonder they are so hard to find. I finally did see the bird and officially added him as my 300th bird on my life list. 
Boreal Owl-my 300th lifer, what a neat bird!
The successful birding trip for the day came to an end but we were not entirely done birding. A Great Gray Owl search was done at the Sax-Zim Bog to try to find this species which was rather scarce this year. Not one was found during that search, in fact none were seen during the weekend. Lifer 301 showed up however in the form of an owl. A Northern Hawk Owl was perched atop a tree in the fading daylight allowing close approach.
To wrap up a great day of birding we went to the Meadowlands Community Center to listen to Al Batt, a great comedian that made us all laugh. We went back to the hotel exhausted and ready for bed.
We drove into the city and checked out some areas near Lake Superior for gulls. It didn't take long to find some gulls and pick out a Great Black-backed Gull. This bird was my 296th lifer! I expected to see new birds on this trip but I didn't expect to find one so quickly.
It didn't take long to find some other interesting gulls including adult Glaucous (photo below) and Thayer's Gulls.
I got some shots of the lighthouse and a lift bridge in Duluth as well while I was looking for the gulls. Duluth is an interesting city that sits along the shores of one of the largest freshwater lakes in the world and has the largest inland seaport anywhere.
After an hour or so we headed forty-five minutes to the northwest to a town called Meadowlands for the festival. We got registered and enjoyed a talk by Larry Weber on animal tracks in the woods.
We headed out at 6am and made the 2hr 30min journey up there. The sun was up and out when we arrived and so were the birds and I was getting excited. We drove down to where they had been seeing it and after only a short minute of looking for it I saw the loon sitting out in the middle of the river. It was easy to spot as he was much bigger than all of the other birds on the river. The pressure of finding it was off and now we could observe it as well as the other birds there with a little more ease. After a while of watching my 294th life bird swim around for a while we started paying attention to some of the other birds around the area.