I birded north of Fort Collins starting in mid-morning and then finished up at Crow Valley Campground/Briggsdale at 6pm (Weld)
The highlights were changing-of-the-guard type things, not rarities. North Poudre Reservoir #4: Redhead (375) Canvasback (2) North Poudre Reservoir #3: Horned Grebe (3) FOS Red-breasted Merganser (2 males) no Sandhill Cranes that I could find Common Raven (few) they are always in this area, relatively far from the foothills Lesser Scaup (50+) Ring-billed and a few Herring Gulls eating lots of large crayfish Northern Pintail (100's, tough to tell how many because of their roosting on shore amid the tree trunks on the west side) Total of 18 species of waterfowl (misses were Hooded Merganser, Greater Scaup, and maybe Wood Duck) Hamilton Reservoir (Rawhide Power Plant) from the Visitor Overlook: Redhead (about 100) Cinnamon Teal (1 pair) FOS Pawnee Grasslands (Carr east to SR85 s to CR122/120 east to CR77 (sort of), then s to Crow Valley: Rough-legged Hawk (3 immature birds at various places, one eating a mammal that was either a vole or a pocket-gopher) Northern Shrike (adult singing) northwest corner of CV Campground Townsend's Solitaire (1) north part of CV Campground Miscellaneous Observations: Big influx of Western Meadowlarks throughout the described area today. American Tree Sparrows still present. Appears to be an influx of American Kestrels. Mountain Bluebirds at various places, but not as many as are in the foothills. Devoted a little bit of effort checking concentrations of sand sage for Sage Sparrows - no luck, as has been the case for the last 35 years. (Does this fit Einstein's definition of insanity?) The prairie is dry! Dave Leatherman Fort Collins --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Join us at the 2009 Convention in Alamosa: http://cfo-link.org/convention/index.php You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
