>From 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. today Wendy Sydow and I ran the Boulder County Nature >Association's Stearn's Lake winter raptor route. The number of raptors was >down significantly from trips earlier this year. Our list for the morning was >4 Red-tailed Hawks, an adult Harlans, and an American Kestrel. At Stearn's >Lake, we were intriged to see a small area of open water with a couple of >hundred geese on it. Among the Canada and Cackling Geese was one unusual goose >with white at the base of the bill. The goose was lying on the ice beside the >open water, so the belly and legs were not visible. It was larger than the >neighboring Canadas. The cheeks and side of the head were grey and the crown >black. The neck was a grey-brown with fine diagonal lines. The head and neck >most resembled Sibley's illustration of a Greater White-fronted/Snow Goose >hybrid except for the bill color. The bill of the bird we observed was dark. >We suspected a Greater White-fronted cross with a Canada, but more detail on >the belly and legs would be useful.
Between 1-2 p.m., I returned to the lake with my wife to attempt to photograph the hybrid. Half or more of the geese had left, and the hybrid was not among the remaining birds. As we scanned the geese, four Common Megs flew in. Then, the waterfowl spooked as an adult and an immature Bald Eagle cruised over the lake from the south. We watched the eagles long enough to see them joined by a second adult that appeared to be carrying a Prairie Dog. As we drove away from the lake, a Prairie Falcon on a utility pole capped the day. Chuck Hundertmark 2546 Lake Meadow Drive Lafayette, CO 80026 Phone/fax: 303-604-0531 Cell: 720-771-8659 [email protected] -- 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
