Lake County 4-24-2011. More spring snows & more interesting high elevation birds! I finally got down to check Twin Lakes late Sunday and found the following:
15 Great Blue Herons (unprecedented high count), a pair of Hooded Mergansers (very uncommon here); 175+ Franklin’s Gulls, 5 Ring-billed Gulls, 4 Long-billed Dowitchers, 2 Semipalmated Plovers, 2 Least Sandpipers, and a shifting, splitting, re-combining flock of peeps including about 30 birds, most of which were Semipalmated Sandpipers with a couple standout Western Sandpipers. I suspect Semi Sands are rather infrequent here in the central Rockies. I’m familiar with all the peeps and had good direct comparison with Western and Least. Size and shape alone ruled out Baird’s or White-rumped. Crystal Lakes also had 43 Ring-billed Gulls, more than I’ve seen previously. Weekend total of 86 species is the best I’ve done in April here, despite almost constant snow and only a few hours spent birding. Tim Kalbach Leadville, CO -- 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.
