Tom Wilberding and Todd Deininger joined me today on an outing first to the Jackson State Park area in Morgan County and then returning to Larimer County. We discovered the Long-tailed Duck found on Friday by Cole Wild mid-way between where he saw it and where Joe Roller found it later in the day. There were at least 2 Marsh Wrens active in this area, too. We viewed Jackson from the boat ramp on the west side and the dam on the east side. From the west we found a couple of Common Loons among many other common species. From the east side, we walked along the dam to the first big curve where we saw a small group of Snow Geese flying in with Canadas. Then we found another half dozen Snows in a group that was clearly about 150 Cackling Geese with distinct size comparisons to Snows, Lesser Canadas and large Canadas. A Merlin flew by on the land side while at the point. Upon heading back to the car, we noticed something black not more than 50 feet from all the fishermen at the top of the stairs-great views and photos of a White-winged Scoter ensued.
The east-of-Riverside seeps were not too productive to we kept heading west. Our first stop back in Larimer County was Timnath Reservoir which held many ducks and grebes (it was interesting to me that almost all of the small grebes we say today were Eared) including a Red-breasted Merganser. We went on to Douglas Reservoir where we found a Pacific Loon (but not a second Long-tailed Duck, however most birds were beyond our reach). Driving south, we skipped Warren Reservoir knowing that Bob Righter would be there at about the time we were driving past. (Actually it was a lack of familiarity and preparation that kept us heading south.) We visited Lake Loveland, but perhaps too early for anything more unusual than a first cycle Herring and continued on to Dry Creek Reservoir. This unmapped body of water SE of Carter Lake is only a couple of years old, but was full of ducks. There seemed to be quite a few Pintail and Wigeon for this far west, and we picked out one Greater Scaup from a small group of Lessers. Bill Kaempfer Boulder -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ 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
