Hello, Birders. I got out to a few spots around east-central Boulder County yesterday, Monday, Jan. 2nd. The highlights:
1. At Teller Farms, the Golden-crowned Sparrow originally reported by Scott Severs. Just as Christian noted, it was with the White-crowned Sparrows. Time of sighting was around 10am. Two tantalizing notes. First, I coulda sworn I heard a Golden-crowned Kinglet there; just once, and just the tsee-tsee-tsee call. I wrote it off as something else, but now I see Christian's comment. (Then again, the sound I heard was emanating from the planted conifers with the sparrows, not exactly where Christian heard his bird.) Hmm... Second, I noted that one of the White-crowned Sparrows had a nice corn-yellow bill. I'm guessing it was "just" a Gambel's that hadn't been eating its Wheaties, but, still, it gave me pause...and it woulda set Steve Mlodinow's heart a flutter... ;) 2. A fair bit of good stuff at Valmont Reservoir. Jeff Gordon, who was passing through, met up with me, and we started out by making the bone-headed mistake of looking for gulls at the two usual places, namely, distant Leggett Reservoir and the southwest corner of Valmont Reservoir proper. (Read on, there's a happy, if somewhat problematic, ending to this story.) Well, while wondering where all the gulls were, we scoped a distant swan on the west side of Leggett. Despite the extreme distance, views through the scope seemed perfect for Trumpeter Swan: extremely long-necked; seemingly thick-necked; nice, smoothly rounded back; very large-bodied; and long- and large-billed. Presumably, the bird will linger, and somebody will get a nice diagnostic look at the exact shape of the bill base. 2x. More Valmont. On the way out, we noticed that the gulls--several thousand of them, and still piling on at a good clip--were all at the far east side of Valmont Reservoir proper. We saw at least two Lesser Black-backed Gulls (adult, 2nd- or 3rd-cycle) and three Thayer's Gulls (all 1st-cycle) here, plus numerous Herring Gulls and 1 adult California Gull. Alas, we had to blow past the flock pretty quickly, but I bet there's something else good in there! Ted Floyd [email protected] Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado -- 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.
