Yesterday I meandered around areas north of La Junta in some of the best weather that fall in Colorado can produce. Not far from the small town of Ordway I spotted 2 apparent raptors on the ground near a stock pond and I was surprised to find they were adult Cooper's Hawks. I guess these forest-dwelling hawks need to learn to deal with the wide open spaces that are most prevalent in this area.
There were thousands of waterfowl and water birds on Lakes Henry, Holbrook and Meredith (especially the first two). Though aechmorphorus grebes were sparse when i birded these lakes last month, there were very good numbers yesterday with likely close to a thousand at Lake Henry and lesser numbers at the other two irrigation reservoirs. There were also very large numbers of cormorants with some flying in flocks around the area. American White Pelicans were on all three lakes, as usual. The only shorebirds I saw were Killdeer and Baird's Sandpipers. I enjoyed watching several Baird's as they engaged in their bathing behavior at Lake Henry. They were quite vigorous bathers, splashing the water as they dipped and shooked their bodies--they even dunked their heads totally under the water. I was delighted to hear Sandhill Cranes but didn't see any until I got to Lake Henry in late afternoon. There were a few hundred on the ground on the north shore with more flocks coming in to spend the night. I have posted photos of some of the sandpipers as they flew overhead as well as the bathing Baird's on my BirdsAndNature <http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com> I also photographed (photos on blog) a Red-tailed Hawk that appeared to be a *calurus *(Western) sub-species but it had some *harlani *(Harlan's) features such as a light supercilium. I would appreciate feedback on this bird. SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.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.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
