First off, *bushtits* are everywhere in the eastern lowlands of the county (photos and audio: http://tinyurl.com/CoBu-2015-03-06). Mainly, I'm seeing singles and pairs, not the larger flocks we're probably more familiar with. See if you can be the first this spring to find one of their ridiculous nests, like a huge, dirty tube sock careless tossed into a tree.
At Walden Ponds Sat. morning, 3/7, Cottonwood Marsh was frozen solid, but Wally Toevs Pond had a small patch of open water with many ducks, including 1 *cinnamon teal*, 3 *northern pintails*, 6 *lesser scaup*, and 2 *hooded mergansers*. The drake *common goldeneyes* were imitating nighthawks and woodcocks (audio: http://tinyurl.com/CoGo-2015-03-07). Sat. afternoon, Clover Basin Reservoir had close to a thousand ducks, including 18 *canvasbacks* and 6 *red-breasted mergansers*. But nearby Lagerman Reservoir's anseriform population amounted to a grand total of one (1) *common merganser*. There were three subadult *bald eagles* there; hmm... And Sat. afternoon, McIntosh Lake was frozen, duckless, and nearly gullless. But the residential neighborhood just north of the the lake had a trio of *cedar waxwings* (audio: http://tinyurl.com/CeWw-2015-03-07) and a beautiful, low-soaring adult *ferruginous hawk*. Over at Jim Hamm Nature Study Area, my eye wandered across the county line to Union Reservoir, Weld County, where I espied two *snow geese*. Sunday morning, 3/8, Valmont Reservoir had a couple thousand gulls. Unfortunately, they were taking off as I arrived just after 6am MDT. About 200 remained until sunrise; of that total, about 50 were *California gulls*, definitely on the move now through the Front Range metro region. Also 10 *herring gulls* in the mix. Late Sunday afternoon, Andrew Floyd (video: http://tinyurl.com/AnFl-2015-03-08) and I returned to Valmont and saw a grand total of two (2) gulls, one a herring, the other a Cal. Also present were 6 *horned grebes, *the overwintering* double-crested cormorants*, and a *swan spuh*, probably the long-present but erratic tundra swan. Over at nearby Valmont Presbyterian Church, the mudflats hosted a *killdeer.* Speaking of killdeer, there were two this sunny Monday morning, 3/9, at Prince Lake No. 2. Also a small waxwing flock, *western meadowlarks* singing up a storm, and 13 *mountain bluebirds* (photo: http://tinyurl.com/MoBl-2015-03-09). Oh, I forgot to mention the Twin Lakes Regional Trail ("Gunbarrel Greenway") back on Sat. morning. There were some tricky nuthatches there (audio: http://tinyurl.com/WBNu-2015-03-07), just *Rocky Mountain nuthatches*, I think, but giving calls that could be (mis)interpreted as those of the Carolina nuthatch. Several *red-breasted nuthatches* and *brown creepers*, too. And *black-capped chickadees*, of course (audio: http://tinyurl.com/BCCh-2015-03-07). Ted Floyd Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado -- 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/5ec6b03c-d303-41b4-960b-fd6f9c11871a%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
