Greetings All,
So, freshly back from Aruba, I didn't want to lose my tan. So, when I awakened this morning and saw that the weather forecasters were off in their prediction (alas, they were right about the wind), Cathy and I headed out for a few days birding. At Stewarts' Pond (NOTE: This is private property. The owners are VERY nice. Be respectful. It is on Weld CR 46 just east of WCR 37) we had 70 or so yellowlegs, 3 White-faced Ibis, 20+ BN Stilts, and just a good variety of birds. The only rarity there was a fly over. I can hear the moans, yes, a flyover NEOTROPIC CORMORANT. We spotted two birds fighting the wind, headed in our direction. One was clearly rather larger than the other, like the difference between an "average" sized Lesser Canada and "average" sized Cackling Goose, or between a Moffitt (Big Ugly) Canada and a Lesser Canada. In any case, it was quickly apparent that these were cormorants. Because they were flying into the wind, we had a fairly leisurely look, and the difference in size was clearly real, as was the proportionately longer tail of the Neotrop. The birds were headed west to ??? Having just seen hundreds of these, the structure was clear, as was the size difference. At Loloff Reservoir, there was a nice dark female MEXICAN DUCK At Beebe Draw, along WCR 42, there was a male EURASIAN X AMERICAN GREEN-WINGED TEAL. This bird had a moderately prominent white side stripe (much like the Eurasian subspecies) and goodly white vertical "shoulder" stripe (much like our subspecies of GW Teal), an American GW Teal like face pattern, but a paler yellow chest, more like the Eurasian subspecies. The pair of RED-NECKED GREBES remain at the Firestone Ponds, now in breeding plumage. Shall they? Breed that is? Been there a long time Okay, back to unpacking Good Birding Steven Mlodinow Longmont, 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.
