Greetings All,
Today, Bill Schmoker and I did a loop from Allenspark to Ward to Gold Hill to Valmont to Broomfield to Frederick to McIntosh. We had 68 species, 5 additional forms, and 5 hybrids Highlights by location: Allenspark: N PYGMY OWL. Responded to our tooting and eventually flew over our heads trailing a skiff of Mountain Chickadees and Pygmy Nuthatches among other birds. The bird was about 100 meters downhill from the Fawnbrook feeders. No rosy finches. A few EVENING GROSBEAKS kicking around. Ward: 2 PINE GROSBEAKS. At feeder on left side of road. Sorry for lack of better directions Gold Hill: Nothing rare, but good numbers of birds including 5 WW Juncos and > 100 Pine Siskins. Valmont: The usual lingering DC Cormorants, Western Grebes, etc. The swan was present and I feel pretty good about it being a TRUMPETER SWAN. Also present was a male GADWALL x MALLARD. Anthem Ponds and Siena Ponds: Generally few birds, perhaps because dump closed on Sunday. GLAUCOUS x HERRING GULL, however, was again present at Siena Pond. LUNA Res: 2 male GREATER SCAUP. Present for most of winter Frederick Rec Area: 3500+ Lesser Canada Geese (parvipes) plus several hundred "Big Ugly" Canada Geese and several hundred Cacklers. Also, 1 ROSS'S GOOSE and the following weirdo geese: 1 pretty classic G WHITE-FRONTED x CANADA (Lesser by size) GOOSE. 2 Snow/Ross's x Canada/Cackling Goose hybrids. One was larger, looked much like it had Blue Goose in it, and was in between Richardson's and Lesser Canada Goose in size. Since Snow Geese are a bit heftier/larger than Lesser Canadas, this bird was most likely a SNOW (blue morph) x CACKLING GOOSE. The second goose was smaller, with a more delicate head, smaller bill (no grin patch, which was present on larger bird), and was about the size of a Richardson's Cackling Goose. This bird was most likely a ROSS'S x CACKLING GOOSE. This bird also seemed to have a somewhat Ross's Goose like bill pattern. McIntosh Res: 1 LESSER BB GULL (2nd year) and 2 THAYER'S GULLS (ad and 2nd year). Time for me to have dinner!!! Good Birding Steven Mlodinow (and Bill Schmoker) Longmont, 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.
