Hello, Birders. I stopped in at the Valmont Reservoir complex, Boulder County, yesterday afternoon, Sunday, Dec. 6th. To my surprise, there were only a few gulls out there. About 80 Ringers, and that was it. Admittedly, it wasn't quite time for the late-afternoon "fly-in." (I was there around 2:45 p.m.) Still, during prolonged cold-snaps (like right now), Valmont tends to have thousands of gulls, right through the day. Not much to report in the way of gulls, then, but I did see a nice, yellow-billed, angle-headed, adult female Barrow's Goldeneye. She was right along the southeast shore of Valmont Reservoir proper. The bird was swimming in the area indicated by the blue shading on this map: http://tiny.cc/45wL7 This area is not visible from the Legion Park overlook off Arapahoe Road. Instead, walk in from 75th Street. Other than that, there was really not a lot out there--which surprised me, given that (a) all 3 reservoirs in the Valmont Reservoir complex are completely open and (b) practically all other bodies of water in Boulder County are frozen solid. I did see 100+ Red-breasted Mergansers and 25+ Hooded Mergansers, which is entirely typical for the site at this time of the year. And a few Bald Eagles, of course. And a single brilliant basic adult Horned Grebe, keeping company with the Barrow's Goldeneye. (Plenty of coots, and a handful of Common Goldeneyes, in the general vicinity, too.) Here's food for thought: Ever noticed that Horned Grebes and Long-billed Murrelets in basic plumage can be surprisingly similar-looking? There are important differences in structure and behavior, for sure, but some individuals can look pretty similar, if you focus only on plumage. -------------------------------
Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Check out Birding magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BirdingMagazine ------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Chat with Messenger straight from your Hotmail inbox. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/hotmail_bl1/hotmail_bl1.aspx?ocid=PID23879::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-ww:WM_IMHM_4:092009 -- 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
