COBirders, Cole Wild, Brad Steger, and I did some birding today at multiple bodies of water. We started in Las Animas county. At Trinidad Lake State Park we counted as many as 13 COMMON LOONs and 1 PACIFIC LOON. All but one Common were seen from the west end of the lake. Between Trinidad and La Veta on highway 12 there was a single SURF SCOTER on North Lake. I am not sure what it is about this little lake but it has been a good spot for Scoters.
Next we headed to Huerfano county. As you probably read in Polly's post there were a number of great birds between La Veta and Lathrop. Thank you to Polly and Paul for letting us know about the birds at Lathrop. The only thing we have to add is that there was/is a RED-NECKED GREBE on Martin Lake. We tried to find Polly and Paul but apparently they had left already. We hit a couple of bodies of water in Costilla county but had little of note. Smith Reservoir had 22 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERs. At San Luis Lake in Alamosa county we had a single SURF SCOTER and ~700 NORTHERN SHOVELERs. We then headed to Park county before it go too late. Unfortunately, you really need to bird the Park county lakes in the morning if at all possible to have best light and typically better conditions (wind). We just could not find anything at Antero but that was totally because of conditions. Spinney Mountain was almost as bad with conditions but we were able to pick out 2 PACIFIC LOONs. We then hit Eleven Mile, where there are many Aechmophorus Grebes. We were running out of light/time and could not find any Red-necked Grebes but I would not be surprised if there were one in there with all the Western and Clark's. At Howbert Point there were 2 SURF SCOTERs and 6 COMMON LOONs. There was also a COMMON LOON off of Lazy Boy which is where the bulk of the Aechmophorus grebes are. On the day we had at least 20 COMMON LOONs, 4 PACIFIC LOONs, 5 SURF SCOTERs, 1 RED-NECKED GREBE and 1 LONG-TAILED DUCK. Undoubtedly there were more loons and possibly more scoters at the South Park reservoirs but we just could not find them in the choppy waters and poor light conditions. ----- Mark Peterson Colorado Springs -- 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.
