I had a late start birding yesterday, but ended up with a really outstanding day. Since an early stop at the CU East Campus was totally unproductive (as was a lunchtime follow-up today), I didn't really do any productive birding until 11:11 a.m. when I reached the Firestone Gravel Ponds. At this point the "Red-necked Grebe" pond is down at least a couple feet leaving a lot of shore exposed, especially on the south side. This shore didn't look to be prime real estate for shorebirds, but they must have had a different idea as there were about 100 peeps present and a total of 13 shorebird species. Bonaparte's Gulls, Snowy Egrets and Black-crowned Night Herons were also in the mix with a lingering Canvasback. FOS birds in the area included Western Kingbird, Lark Sparrow and Brewer's Sparrow.
Next, I traveled to SE Loveland for a visit to Simpson Ponds SWA. I was hoping for some songbird fallout there, but only Rock Wren was of note. Traveling on into Boulder County helped me find three Forster's Terns at Terry Lake and a great variety of waterfowl and shorebirds at Clark Res. (a place that I learned about from Chris Wood years ago). All of the stuff at Clark's is distant, however. Crane Hollow Road still has a Red-headed Woodpecker hanging about, so there is most likely a pair present. In some shrubs around the base of one of the cottonwoods at this spot was a large flock of sparrows that included at least two singing Harris's Sparrows. At this point it was a little after 5:00 p.m. and I had a total of 93 species, so I took a route home that I hoped would get me seven more species. It did, so I ended up with 100 species for the afternoon basically, if you allow me seven hours from 11 to 6 as an afternoon. Bill Kaempfer Boulder -- 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.
