I visited the park yesterday (8/4). The reservoir water levels were about a foot *below* the "normal" exposing new shoreline / mud bar / sand bar habitat in various areas. The Swim Beach and Marina sandspit areas had some interesting looking habitat opportunties but nothing of note was taking advantage of them on my visit. The mud bars exposed at the South Platte inlet (delta) were more interesting and did have a few minor goodies. The road to the Plum Creek delta area is still closed, but I suppose one could walk in.
At the Swim Beach an adult *Bald Eagle* cruised through, with an offended *Osprey* hot on its tail. Two *White-faced Ibis* flew over. A *Forster's Tern* was foraging of the beach and a *Willet *was there. The Platte inlet (delta) area had a *Solitary Sandpiper* and a *Least Sandpiper*. I was surprised to have two female *Hooded Mergansers* fly in and land on the water. The willows here had a *Green Heron*, and there were good numbers of *Great Blue Herons* assembled, plus *Snowy Egret*s and *Black-crowned Night-Herons*. Birding in some upland and riparian areas had some migrants such as *Sage Thrashers*, *Chipping Sparrows*, *Lark Sparrows*, some *Yellow Warblers* out of riparian habitat and such. A *Townsend's Solitaire* in the grove of small pines and juniper south of the Platte River parking lot was a surprise for me there in early August. In the recently flooded riparian along the Platte there were still *Least Flycatchers* (4 in DOU, 6 in JEF; several were juv.), 1 *Red-eyed Vireo* and 1 *American Redstart* (both DOU), and a handful of *Yellow-breasted Chats*. *Yellow Warblers* and *Western Wood-Pewees* were both still abundant, and both seemed to have had a successful nesting season perched about the flood waters, as there were many local young being fed. Back home at Ken Caryl Valley a juvie *Prairie Falcon *was screaching around after an adult. Feed me! David Suddjian Littleton, 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/CAGj6RopXO4Js2w6bJCkOYsx3K13qZJKFXoU6WRXitd64wPhW_g%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
