Folks- Larry Semo & I had the pleasure of birding today with Steve
Mlodinow who is in Denver from Washington State on business this
coming week. We fought tricky birding conditions for most of the day
with frequent snow flurries and less-than-ideal roads, but found some
pleasant bird variety to keep us occupied throughout the day.
A quick stop at the S. Platte River where Florida crosses it produced
the spanking male Barrow's Goldeneye and our first white-cheeked goose
studies of the day, along with a smattering of other ducks.
The trading post at Red Rocks was pretty slow (no Golden-crowned
Sparrow during our visit) but afforded some detailed looks at our
Western Scrub Jay and Spotted Towhee subspecies.
Of most interest to the list may be the pond in Broomfield off of
Highway 7 & Lowell that Mark Peterson described on 13 Feb. (with link
to a map and the 2nd-cycle Iceland Gull pic @ http://tinyurl.com/yj2n9tz.)
Good viewing can be had from the E. side of the pond on Promontory
Way. While we didn't re-locate his 2nd-cycle bird, we did have a
strong 1st-cycle Iceland Gull candidate. I got digiscoped pictures
that look good to me for that taxon but Steve has flight shots of the
bird that I haven't yet seen, so I haven't completely pulled the
trigger on the ID. In the field we also considered that the bird
could be an Iceland x Thayer's intergrade. Howell and Dunn remark on
1st-cycle Iceland vs. Thayers in Gulls of the Americas: "Thayer's
Gull darker and browner overall with blackish brown to dark brown
wingtips..." which this bird doesn't show. In my shots I think it
compares favorably to several of their examples of darker 1st-cycle
Kumlien's Iceland Gulls. They go on to say, however: "Presumed
(Thayer's) hybrids with Kumlien's look intermediate and not safely
assigned to either taxon." So there 'ya go...
The pond also had a hulking brown 1st-cycle gull that could well be a
Glaucous-winged x Herring Gull hybrid. Less ambiguous were two inky
adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls along with a smattering of Herring and
California Gulls among the Ringers.
Nearby Erie and Thomas Reservoirs (Boulder County) had small open
water patches and gatherings of dull gulls.
Enjoy- Bill Schmoker, Longmont
______________________
• Bill Schmoker •
______________________
http://schmoker.org
http://brdpics.blogspot.com
[email protected]
720/201-5749
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