A quick drive at dusk over the John Martin Reservoir dam (Bent) on 1/2, the
extent of open water, the gobs of waterfowl, and results from the recent CBC
there convinced me to go back today on 1/3. After the third consecutive night
with lows below zero, not nearly as much open water today and the existent
holes were pretty far out in the northeast corner of the res. I viewed things
from the northernmost dam parking overlook (the dam being along the east edge
of the res) and from the "Catch and Fry" area in the northeast corner
accessible from the Red Shin hiking trail that starts from an east-west dirt
road that parallels Rd JJ and runs between it and the reservoir's north shore
(this requires about a mile hike each way). If you are on the road that runs
from Hasty to the dam, the east-west dirt road heads off to the west a few
tenths of a mile north of the north end of the dam.
Highlights for reservoir include:
Great Black-backed Gull (1a, 1 first-winter)
Swan sp. (I say Tundra but they were pretty far out and sleeping a lot, 4a,2i)
Barrow's Goldeneye (1m)
Greater Scaup (several)
Red-breasted Merganser (at least 1 male, probably many others)
Pied-billed Grebe (1)
The numbers of "white geese" (30,000???), Common Goldeneyes, Common Mergansers,
and other assorted ducks and geese at John Martin are astounding. I commend
Mark Peterson, Duane Nelson, and others who sorted these species out during the
CBC, regardless of access. I am sure I missed some rare species, like a
scoter, Long-tailed Duck, and perhaps a few gulls.
Highlights from the Lake Hasty area:
Eastern Bluebird (8-10)
not much else that I could find
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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