The CFO Board of Directors had it's quarterly meeting today at Bonny Reservoir State Park. For details on the meeting, read the minutes in the next issue of Colorado Birds which you receive as a benefit of being a member of the CFO--which also brings you COBIRDS. Not a member of CFO?? Well, visit the website at the bottom of this email and get in the game! (Okay, one thing that you will read in the minutes is that we decided to start posting messages like this more often.) The CFO is certainly the only group to which I belong that has its board meetings from 11:00 a.m. to (hopefully) 3:00 p.m., but that is, of course, to allow for some birding. Today, the best bird found at watery Bonny Reservoir was a Caspian Tern at the very western end of the reservoir, seen from the western most picnic area along the park road on the south shore. Following the meeting I headed north in order to do some scouting for an overnight field trip I am leading out the Platte next weekend (contact me if interested). The always exciting Phillips County was spanking today (can a county be spanking, or just a bird?) Road 29 had previously been pointed out to me by Mark Peterson as quite productive when there was water. Well there was so much water that CR 2 into CR 29 was closed by water, and not just water. There is a lake that must be the largest body of water in Phillips County that has closed CR 2. It is probably the 3rd largest body of water in Yuma County, too, for that matter as it crosses the line sort of like a baby version of Adobe Creek/Blue Lake. It so large that it had whitecaps! But perhaps the 25 MPH winds had something to do with that. I think it has been there a while as I noted fledging American Avocet, Killdeer and Mallard. Also present were White-faced Ibis most of the regular dabbling ducks, Baird's Sandpipers, Wilson's Phalaropes and Burrowing Owls. But wait, there's more. Since a fair bit of CR 2 was several feet under water, I decided to "turn around don't drown". What a stroke of good luck as just after turning onto CR 31 I saw the chicken cross the road, and not just any chicken--a Greater Prairie Chicken. When I ended my detour back to CR 29 I was further blessed to see a Prairie Rattlesnake cross the road-probably flooded out of its rugular habitat. Then going north on 29 the intersection with CR 6 was was absolutley Everglades-esque. Again, this water has been there for weeks and weeks as in one corn field you could see where growth had been inhibited. In any event there were shorebirds all over the place, easily a couple of hundred including both yellowlegs, stilt, semi-palm, baird's, least, solitary and spotted sandpiper and a snipe. I also had a group of Black-crowned Night Herons flying around. Do I need to remind you that this was Phillips County? So far, not hummers in Holyoke--my real target, but maybe I will get lucky in the morning. Bill Kaempfer from Holyoke
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