All, Apologizes for the late post:
I did a run through some of El Paso County to Chico Basin Ranch yesterday - racking up 110 species for the day when I ended at 3 pm. I began at Monument Lake on the west side of the town of Monument. In the vein of Ted Floyd's quote of Chris Wood earlier this week, "Rarities are okey, but phenomena are especially cool" - there have been a hoard of Osprey terrorizing the trout at Monument Lake since just before last weekend's blizzard. This tiny lake had 2 Osprey last Friday just before the blizzard and the population exploded to 6 Osprey on Monday. Yesterday a quick look revealed only one hunting, but others could have been on perches out of my sight. I relocated John Drummond's Snow Goose in a flooded field below Big Johnson Reservoir. Along with it were a large group of White-fronted Ibis and single Willet and Marbled Godwit. The reservoir itself was active with waterfowl - nothing unusual - but I did see another Marbled Godwit in with the 20 or so American Avocets. I could not relocated Bonaparte's Gulls in with the Franklin's. There was a nice female Merlin on Bradley Road North and East of the reservoir, it was of the prairie variety. At Chico Basin Ranch (fee) the Pueblo County side at both the Head Quarters Pond and Rose Pond were active. Shorebirds present at Headquarters were Long-billed Dowitcher (1), Willet (1), Semi-palmated Sandpiper (2) and Spotted Sandp. Waterfowl included both Scaup and the other expectants. I could not detect any Glossy types in with the various White-faced Ibis groups around the pond. There was one first-summer Black-crowned Night-Heron in the western reeds at HQ. John Drummond's White-fronted Goose was lounging at Rose Pond. I could not refind the White-crowned Sparrow group that held the immature Harris' Sparrow in it. But I did find a Swamp Sparrow spanked out in breeding plumage in the very Southwest corner of Rose Pond. I also saw my FOS Blue-gray Gnatcatcher there. The only warblers species I found were small groups of Yellow-rumps. The El Paso side of CBR at the banding area was dead when I arrived at around 1:30. Good Day Scott Shaum Monument, CO --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
