COBirders, Late this evening I watched a tern flying around the north and west end of Big Johnson reservoir. I watched it until it was too dark to see it anymore in hopes of it coming closer. Unfortunately, it never came very close. It was definitely a Common/Arctic type tern and of the features I could see, I thought it was more Arctic like than Common. It showed a very narrow white face (obvious contrast), the top side of the wings were very uniform gray in color, I could not detect any darker coloring in the primaries and the bird seemed very long-tailed and buoyant in flight. It would have been nice to either have the bird come much closer or a little more light. The reservoir is still hosting right about 100 big grebes, both species. By the time most of the light was gone, there were 1000+ gulls but nothing I could find other than California and Ring-billed. Probably less than 100 were Ring-billed. There have been as many as 13 Snowy Egrets (9 that I could see tonight) hanging out on the small island that has formed. When they are on the "backside" of the island they are not easy to see. The Bald Eagle was also present tonight and having a late dinner, not sure exactly what it was eating. I finally was able to watch the bird leave the reservoir and hopefully I now have an idea of where it might be nesting. I assume the same pair that tried to nest at the reservoir last year has found a new place to nest that is not far away. Hopefully the tern can be re-found and positively identified. Oh, and there was quite the spectacle of midges all around the parking area. I would guess that there were over a million just in this small area. It was actually a very cool sight to see. ----- Mark Peterson Colorado Springs
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