Folks- Steve Mlodinow summed up most of the goodies from Anthem Ponds & Sienna Pond today, but I thought I'd add a few comments.
Anthem Ponds (S. of HWY 7 & Lowell Blvd) and Sienna Pond (continuing south on Lowell across the Northwest Parkway) are frozen hard but have bubblers creating open water. These are close to the Erie dump, perhaps the best mid-day watering stop for gulls seeking refuge after perusing refuse. The same gulls presumably head over to Valmont for the night. Despite the bubblers, the water holes had totally frozen over at Anthem but by late morning, perhaps helped by the weight of hudreds of gulls, a couple of the holes had re-opened. Regarding the Iceland Gull, although I texted Steve that it was a first-winter bird, after reviewing Howell & Dunn's Gulls of the Americas I'm now revising my age to a 2nd-cycle bird. It had a strongly bicolored bill, and the mantle had some adult-type pale gray feathers. The bird was overall pale gray, little if any brown tones to my eye in the body or wings. Thanks to Ted for his finds at Valmont yesterday (hopefully to be built upon this evening) for tipping us off to the potential presence of youngster Icelands 'round here... I saw two Lesser Black-backed Gulls with adult plumage, but one has a lot of black on the bill just behind the red gonys spot. Howell & Dunn indicate that this may be a 4th-cycle feature (see fig. 27.2, p. 187.) I saw the darker-billed bird at Anthem pond before lunch, then a clean yellow&red-billed one at Sienna Pond, and later both together at Anthem Pond on my second run through. As far as Glaucous Gulls, I saw single birds at both Anthem and Sienna Ponds. As Steve alluded to, the Sienna Ponds bird was small and smallish-billed for a glock, only marginally bigger than adjacent Herring Gulls. I think this is a strong contender for the Barrovianus subspicies. I think the adult bird I saw at Anthem Ponds was larger than the other bird, outsizing the Herring Gulls in a more expected way. Thanks to Steve for the Redhead x Ringneck Duck pick- I had brushed right by it on my duck count so I could get onto the gull sort... nicely done, a lifer taxa for me (and Steve, too, I think...) Enjoy- Bill Schmoker, Longmont -- /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | Bill Schmoker | | [email protected] | | http://schmoker.org | | http://brdpics.blogspot.com | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ -- 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 https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
