Colorado - the Great Grouse Tour

Thursday 2 April to Monday 13 April 2009
with Chris Wood and Gavin Bieber as leaders.

Cost: £1760 plus about £820 for flights

Single room supplement: £200

Click here for explanation of price breakdown

Maximum group size: 7 with 1 leader; 14 with 2 leaders.

The second named leader will only join the tour if there are more than 7 participants.

Bird List

Tour Map

Booking Form

April is a spectacular time of year in Colorado.  Late winter and early spring meet, with stunningly beautiful snow-capped peaks and the first blush of green on the river-edge cottonwoods.  It’s also the time when the five lekking grouse – Sharp-tailed Grouse, Greater and Gunnison Sage-Grouse, and Lesser and Greater Prairie-Chickens – are engaged in their spectacular, foot-stomping, cackling, hooting and moaning displays.  These leks are probably the most fascinating wildlife show in North America, and yet they are seen by very few people.  Our tour is designed to give us ample time to watch it all.

Our travels to the grouse leks will involve some long drives, but what drives they are!  We’ll pass through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, expansive sage-flats, seemingly never-ending grasslands and past more than a dozen 14,000-foot mountain peaks.  We’ll look as well for a variety of resident, early-arriving or late-departing species including White-tailed Ptarmigan and Blue Grouse.  Mammals will be unusually well represented and we could see Bighorn Sheep, Pronghorn, Elk, Mule and White-tailed Deer, Moose, Coyote, Red Fox and, with luck, Bobcat or Black Bear. 

Day 1:  The tour begins in London with a flight to Denver, Colorado.  Night in Denver.

Day 2:  We’ll depart early for the foothills outside Denver where we may see three species of nuthatches, Mountain and Western Bluebirds, Cassin’s Finch and Williamson’s Sapsucker.  Along watercourses we’ll look for the stream-loving American Dipper, and if the weather permits we’ll make our way to one of the high mountain passes and endeavour to locate the elusive White-tailed Ptarmigan, still white at this season.  During some years, rosy-finches linger into April and we may be lucky enough to see all three species.  In the afternoon we’ll cross Willow Creek Pass and drop into North Park.  Night in North Park.

Day 3:  We’ll rise early to witness the stunning display of the largest North American grouse, Greater Sage-Grouse.  As we watch the lek we’ll pay particular attention to plumage and behavioural differences between this species and the Gunnison Sage-Grouse, a newly described species we’ll look for later in the trip.  After leaving the lek we’ll explore the nearby wetlands and sagebrush flats of North Park, where we might see the courtship of newly arrived Cinnamon Teal and American Avocets and hear the rich melodies of Sage Thrasher.  In the afternoon we’ll cross Rabbit Ears Pass, stopping at high elevations to listen and look for Blue Grouse and other high-country species such as Pine Grosbeak and Three-toed Woodpecker.  We’ll end the day with a drive to the Yampa River Valley.  Night in Craig.

Day 4:  We’ll depart in the before dawn for a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek, where we’ll witness the amazing display of this foot-stomper.  The surrounding meadows and valley support a wide variety of wildlife including nesting Sandhill Cranes, several raptors, and many mammals. After breakfast, we will head south passing through the town of Meeker, where we will look for Evening Grosbeaks and Cassin’s Finches.  In the evening, if the weather is suitable, we will join Rich Levad of the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory to look for several species of owls, perhaps including Northern Saw-whet, Long-eared, Tengmalm’s, and Western Screech-Owl.  Night in Clifton.

Day 5:  We will spend the morning birding the canyonlands in aptly named Mesa County where we should see Rock Wren, Canyon Wren, White-throated Swifts and other characteristic birds of Colorado’s dry West Slope.  We’ll also keep our eyes on the ground where we may see Gambel’s Quail or Chukar.  After lunch we will visit the impressive Black Canyon of the Gunnison.  The scenery here is spectacular, and there is no better place to find Blue Grouse and Pinyon Jay.  Night in Gunnison.

Day 6:  This morning we’ll visit a lek of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse.  With the displays of Greater Sage-Grouse still fresh in our minds we’ll be able to appreciate the differences that led to the recognition of this bird as a separate species.  After enjoying the grouse and the vocal Sage Thrashers, we’ll drop into the Arkansas River Valley.  Here we’ll search for several species near the northern limit of their range including Scaled Quail, Curve-billed Thrasher, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, and Canyon Towhee; while nearby hills usually hold Juniper Titmouse and Bushtits.  Pueblo Reservoir often produces a surprise or two, and a city park should provide close-up views of Wood Ducks.  Night in Pueblo.

Day 7:  We’ll search for birds as we head east along the Arkansas River Valley, one of the most exciting birding places in Colorado.  Riverine cottonwoods, just beginning to show green, are oases in a sea of shortgrass prairie and collect newly arrived migrants like a magnet, perhaps including Say’s Phoebe or Harris’s Sparrow.  The reservoirs and pools may host waterfowl and early-arriving waders such as Baird’s Sandpiper, Wilson’s Phalarope, American Avocet, and Long-billed Curlew.  Mountain Plovers nest in small numbers in the grasslands and we will hope to find a pair or two.  Night in Elkhart.

Day 8:  Today we will drive south into the Oklahoma Panhandle, stopping to look for birds at several oasis and wooded patches as we wend our way west to Cottonwood Canyon, Colorado. This delightfully wooded canyon in the extreme southeast of Colorado has hosted many rarities over the years and we'll seek out any of these as well as the residents such as Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Greater Roadrunner, Curve-billed Thrasher and Rufous-crowned Sparrow. We'll also visit the isolated sewage ponds and patches of forest around Elkhart itself, looking for early migrant passerines and shorebirds, Long-eared and Barn Owls, and waterfowl. Night in Elkhart, Kansas.

Day 9: We’ll rise early and travel to the shortgrass prairie of the Comanche National Grasslands to watch the displays of Lesser Prairie-Chicken.  Well spend some time on the grasslands looking for nesting birds including Chihuahuan Ravens and Long-billed Curlews, and search prairie-dog colonies for Burrowing Owl and Ferruginous Hawk.  As we head north we’ll stop at Two Buttes Reservoir, one of the state’s most interesting migrant traps, as well as other reservoirs and isolated patches of trees that may harbour interesting birds.  Night in Wray.

Day 10:  Thanks to the help of the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Yuma County Historical Society, sunrise will find us on a private ranch in the rolling hills of Yuma County overlooking a Greater Prairie-Chicken lek.  After the birds have finished displaying, we’ll slowly return to Denver, stopping en route at Bonny Reservoir, where in the wooded fringe we may see species more typical of eastern North America including Northern Cardinal, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebird and ‘Eastern’ White-breasted Nuthatch.  Night in Denver.

Day 11:  We’ll catch a flight back to London where the tour concludes on Day 12.

The ground arrangements for this tour are organised by our American associates WINGS.

E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.

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Last updated June 2008