Hello, Birders. Yesterday, Sunday, Nov. 6th, I birded the north shore of Boulder Reservoir, Boulder County, before and for a while after sunrise; and McIntosh Reservoir, Boulder County, for a while before sundown.
Boulder Rez had a Red-necked Grebe, perhaps the one found a little while ago by Nathan Pieplow. Also lots of Eared Grebes, a few Horned Grebes, and, of course, a great throng of Western Grebes. Right at sunrise, a group of 166 Cackling Geese landed in the shallow lagoon near the north parking area, then took off; they were accompanied by about 20 Northern Pintails. At first light, many hundreds of ducks, mainly "dabbling ducks" (i.e, in the genus Aythya) flew northwest from the Rez, to daytime feeding areas, I assume, in the St. Vrain drainage and beyond; in several of the Gadwall flocks (ID'd by female quacks), I heard, for the first time in my life, the notorious Ivorybill double-knock wingtip collisions. *Very* convincing; instantly conjured aural memories of Pale-billed Woodpecker, I haveta say. Also, there was a nice flight of American Tree Sparrows during astronomical and nautical dawn; and at sunrise, the thickets along the north shore of the Rez were hopping with these "Winter Chippies." (No White-crowns, despite decent beating of the bushes, so that's consistent with Steve Mlodinow's report from farther east.) A few other odds and ends from the Rez: Virginia Rail, American Pipette, a fair number of Lesser Scaup amid two or three scaupspuhs, and a smattering of Hooded Mergansers. McIntosh Rez, with Hannah and Andrew, had zero American White Pelicans. I suspect we were there after Bill Kaempfer, then. But Hannah and Andrew and I did get to see at least 25 Bonaparte's Gulls, down from 40+ earlier in the month. And we saw 0 Barn Swallows, down from 1 earlier in the month. However, there was a nice, newly arrived, fresh, clean, seemingly "pure," adult Thayer's Gull--a bit early, but not really. Also a first-cycle Herring Gull and an adult Herring Gull. Amid the many, many Western and Eared Grebes was a dapper Clark's Grebe, so a six-grebe day for me in BoCo. Ducks were in fine numbers, with Ruddy, Hooded Merg, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Canvasback, Lesser Scaup, that sorta thing--definitely the late-season crowd. By the way, if anybody sees Hannah's beloved blue-and-red sock, could you tell me, please? (The last time I put out such a request on COBirds, someone actually came through for her!) It should be on or near the dam, over on the southwest side. Yes, she and Andrew were barefoot and unjacketed out on the rocks and in the shallows, despite the wind and cold. Am I my children's keeper? Oh. Wait. Never mind. Ted Floyd [email protected] Lafayette, Boulder County -- 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.
