Birders,
The deep freeze has frozen all local lakes, but John Martin Reservoir
(Bent County) remains mostly open, due to the large volume of water
still present following historic floods last spring. I posted following
the John Martin Christmas Count that birds were shockingly sparse on the
reservoir on December 15th. Cold weather to the north and regionally has
finally brought an influx of migrant and wintering birds. The reservoir
is teeming with birds, and I'd recommend making it a birding destination
before it freezes. I did not visit every part of the reservoir today, or
go through every bird, but here's some of what I encountered:
American White Pelican - at least 22 individuals. We missed them on the CBC.
Pacific Loon (1). Still present, can be anywhere on the lake, and very
hard to locate. It seems to favor the lake west of the state park
boundary (look for the signs at a cattle guard).
Grebes - lots of Pied-billeds, a few Eared, and at least two Western.
Gulls - have arrived /en masse. /I had one adult Lesser Black-backed and
one adult Thayer's from the campground loop north and east of "Point
Overlook" among hordes of other gulls. I am sure more species are
present. There is an ice shelf in the bay just east of the campground,
and some of the gulls roost close to shore on the ice.
Lots of ducks of many species. Finally, the Common Mergansers made it
this far south.
A pair of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers is wintering along the river below
the dam. I would recommend looking in tall, burned salt cedar (tamarisk)
trees, especially near "Mrs. Robert's Pond", which is close to the
southwest corner of Lake Hasty.
Duane Nelson
Las Animas, Bent County, CO
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