Today I took a 6:15 am flight from Minneapolis to Denver, where I met up with Kim Eckert and his MOU Birding Weeks group and headed for exciting birds! My list for the day (* means new for my Conservation Big Year):

Canada Goose
Mallard
Lesser Scaup
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
*Red-naped Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
*Steller’s Jay
*Pinyon Jay (heard only–this is a bird of Conservation Concern)
*Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
*Mountain Chickadee
*Mountain Bluebird
Townsend’s Solitaire
American Robin
European Starling
Dark-eyed Junco (we saw the Pink-sided, Gray-headed, Oregon, and Slate-colored varieties)
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Common Grackle
*Cassin’s Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Seven new for year gives me a total so far of 288 species.