Date: 11/3/25 9:22 am From: Ted Floyd <tedfloyd73...> Subject: [cobirds] CFO field trip announcement: Return of The Great Boulder Caper!—Black Friday, Nov. 28, 2025
Colorado Field Ornithologists (CFO) is pleased to announce The Great
Boulder Caper, v. 2025. This zaniest birding event of the year will be held
the day after American Thanksgiving, on Black *F**riday, November 28, 2025.*
The Caper is not a traditional CFO field trip. Our itinerary will be
determined by local conditions and what seems exciting that day. The Caper
is freeform: part–birding flashmob, part–progressive dinner party.
*Co-leaders are Ted Floyd and Megan Jones Patterson.* Plus whichever of you
are forcibly conscripted as co-leaders by Ted and Megan on the spot.
Here's how to caper with us: *Please register online
<https://cobirds.org/events/great-boulder-caper-v2025/> with CFO;* the
online registration form is fast, easy, and intuitive. CFO won't ask you
for money, sell your identity to Starbucks, or track your every
movement with the eBird app. After you're registered, Ted and Megan will
confirm with you the meetup point, essentially unknown at the present time,
and the vaguest sense of an itinerary, which, honestly, gets determined
day-of. But if you need a general sense for things, it seems likely that we
will get underway in the *7am hour* somewhere in the general vicinity
of *Longmont,
Boulder County.*
The Caper is free and open to the public, but we need to cap this popular
outing at 30 participants. So it is *first-come first-served;* and,
surreally, several of you already have reserved a spot, even though this
announcement is going out only now. Go figure.
*Ride-sharing is strongly encouraged.* Figure it out among yourselves.
We’re all friends. And if your rider or driver is a perfect stranger, well,
how often do you meet a perfect person? *Feel free to come and go as you
please.* Most years, a few of us are still capering well past sundown; but
it is also totally fine to bail at noon, or not show up till noon, or
whatever.
What will we see? *Late November is brilliant in Boulder County.* No
guarantees, but recent Capers have produced Swamp and White-throated
sparrows, Virginia Rails, Marsh and Canyon wrens, Prairie Falcons and
Prairie Merlins, Ferruginous and Rough-legged hawks, Northern Shrikes,
American Dippers, Eastern Screech-Owls, rare geese and gulls, late
shorebirds, great studies of eagles, every variety of Dark-eyed Junco
imaginable, and enchanting flocks of bewitching American Bushtits.
What will we do? Watch birds, of course. Eat leftovers. Ridicule
shoppers. *Share
our love of birds and other wild things with one another.*
*All are welcome! *You don’t have to be a CFO member to caper with us,
although, if you are not, it is likely that the several CFO BOD members in
attendance will compel you to join. Children, teens, and non-birding
companions are especially welcome.
Participant feedback from last year’s Caper: “I laughed. I cried. It
changed my life.” “The most fun you’ll have with your pants on.” “I left my
food, money, and optics in Ted Floyd’s car. And never saw any of it again.”
Ted Floyd, Boulder Co.
Megan Jones Paterson, Boulder Co.
P. s. Here's a pic, attached/below, from a sort of "pre-Caper," held
yesterday afternoon, Sunday, November 2. The group is at Hecla Pond,
Louisville, Boulder Co., and we're enjoying a celebratory swig of kombucha.
[image: Lafayette Birds 02Nov2025 01.jpg]
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