On Thursday Ted Cooper and I made a run out the I-76 corridor and had a few interesting sightings along the way.
Jumbo Res- the large (10,000?) flock of snow geese continues. The flock on the water was quite impressive, but the real show came when a bald eagle decided to buzz them. The entire flock lifted off the water and put on a great show for a couple of minutes while the eagle flew back and forth without seeming to accomplish much except to say "Just foolin' with ya!" to the geese. Also present were about a hundred great white-fronted geese, mixed in with the Canacacks. A large number for this species, we thought. One canvasback, lots of pintails, 135 lesser and ten greater scaup, and we took the time to pick a Ross or two out of the snows. A fools errand, indeed. Red Lion- a great horned owl on nest, lots of dabblers and another couple hundred snow geese. Tamarack- a little disappointing- we were unable to pick a cardinal out of the hedgerows, but we got a couple of rough-legged hawks and quite a few eastern bluebirds. Along the south end of Tamarack we picked up a lot of mountain bluebirds and one female Taiga merlin. The east end of the area produced a FOS sage thrasher. Highway 138 from Crook to Prewitt- one northern shrike, one ferruginous hawk. Prewitt Reservoir, Logan County- the reservoir is mostly frozen, but we got distant looks at the small open portion which was, of course, at the far side. there were four pelicans, which seem to be showing up really early (see, Panama Res.). A scan of the entire reservoir (Logan and Washington) produced 67 bald eagles. There were probably more than that. Gulls were limited to ringers and herring. Prewitt, Washington County- same birds as the Logan end except for one nice first cycle glaucous gull. Riverside Park, Fort Morgan- not much new here- the scads of Canacacks included one white-fronted and one snow goose. Don't know how they got separated from their buddies out at Jumbo. Road 144 toward Jackson- fifty wild turkeys and another ferruginous. Jackson- we didn't check the SWA area, so we missed the waterfowl reported by Steve M. An owl search was unsuccessful, and about all we got were the usual suspects, with a harrier and a great blue heron in the Andrick Ponds area. Good birding, Norm Lewis Lakewood, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
