Folks, I spent some time both yesterday and today checking out water bodies in hopes of find ducks, loons, gulls, alcids etc... Thursday was primarily spent poking around Douglas County. I found Bonaparte's Gulls at several locations, even the smallest of ponds. I photographed a couple of these birds at Cherry Creek reservoir while they were fishing close to shore. Herring Gulls of all ages are also trickling in. Several locales held diving ducks, including Buffleheads, Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Ducks, Ruddy Ducks, Redheads and Canvasbacks joining the dabbling Green-winged Teal, American Wigeon, Gadwalls, Northern Pintails, and Mallards. Eared and Horned Grebes now accompany large numbers of Western Grebes at Cherry Creek and Chatfield.
Today, Loch and I went to Park County looking for ducks, loons, gulls, alcids etc... Eleven Mile, Spinney and Antero (85% frozen) failed to produce much in the way of rarities. FOS Common Goldeneye and several Common Loons were our best catch as far as water birds. American Coots were found in ridiculous numbers at each of these lakes. The raptor display in South Park was most enjoyable. Fresh snow cover allowed for great light on the undersides of 6+ Rough-legged Hawks, including a fine dark morph bird, 3 Prairie Falcons, a dark morph Red-tailed Hawk and a Ferruginous Hawk. Large flocks of Horned Larks kept the Prairie Falcons interested, but we were unable to find any longspurs or Snow Buntings despite some effort. A quick stop at Chatfield on the way home produced my previous report of Red-necked Grebe, Pacific and Common Loons. Glenn Walbek Castle Rock, CO http://www.pbase.com/gwalbek/2011_birds -- 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.
