John Vanderpoel and I birded a number of spots in Northern Boulder County and found a few interesting birds this morning.
We started by going up to Allenspark where all three Rosy Finches were present at the Fawn Brook Inn, about 100 Gray-crowned (predominantly males and including some Hepburn's), 10 Brown-capped and 2 Black. Several Cassin's Finches were also present. Returning to the plains we drove past a pond along Hygiene Road that last fall's flood messed up. I would have identified it as just west of the St. Vrain River, but I think the "river runs through it" now. In any event we had a first winter Trumpeter Swan there. At McIntosh Lake in Longmont, there was a Merlin present in the trees along the south side and a group of gulls on the edge of the ice toward the west end that included a sharp looking adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. At Jim Hamm we found a nice variety of gulls including one California, two Thayer's and another Lesser Black-backed. Finally, going beyond Boulder County to Union Reservoir we found a pair of lingering Yellow-headed Blackbirds that had also been present on Thanksgiving and more gulls with a heavy proportion of Herring Gulls mixed in with the Ring-billeds. After dropping John at his home, I continued to Valmont Reservoir where the highlight was another first winter Trumpeter Swan, or was it the same bird? Last week's American White Pelicans were not to be found. 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/F90B1155A81D474890D22EEFFFA7CAE51C1E6E0707%40EXC4.ad.colorado.edu. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
