Returning from a work trip Saturday evening, I had a chance to view some of the lakes from the air, and I visited a few of them in person yesterday. Lake levels vary tremendously.
Prewitt Reservoir (Washington County) appears to be very full. The area around the inlet canal appears to be under water, accessible by boat only. Land birds tend to be elsewhere this time of year -- below the dam typically -- and presumably that area is still birdable. Jackson Reservoir (Morgan County) remains low (photo here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/76753483@N08/10526545355/). I haven't been there in a week, but in visits through mid October, almost all the gulls and shorebirds were near the eastern lobe of the lake (right side of the image), accessible with 1-2 miles of easy walking along the dam and/or firm lake bed, from the dam parking lot on County Road 3.5. Ducks have been more scattered on Jackson. Nearby (private) Empire and Riverside Reservoirs are also very low. The level at Timnath Reservoir (Larimer County) has remained about the same, but bird numbers yesterday were way down from where they were a few weeks ago. North Sterling Reservoir (Logan County) remains unusually low, as reported recently by Bill Kaempfer. Yesterday, it had a decent variety of gulls (Bonaparte's, Herring, California, Ring-Billed), ducks (expected species, as far as I could tell), over 150 pelicans, and some late American Avocets. The most uncommon bird I could find was a RED-NECKED GREBE. I didn't find any scoters, but many of the ducks I was approaching flew to the distant other side of the lake when gunfire erupted. I didn't have a chance to scan them well and didn't pursue them. The road network south of the lake had some goodies: Golden Eagle, Lapland Longspurs, Rough-Legged Hawk, and American Pipits. At Houts Reservoir (Larimer County) near Loveland, the BRANT that couldn't be found in the morning was easily found on the southwest side of the lake at 3:30 PM, in the company of a Canada Goose, as has been reported previously. David Dowell 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/4e49e409-5ef1-412b-a11a-293cd1a5a783%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
