I visited Valmont Reservoir twice today, and it was two entirely different places-only the birds were the same.
This morning I stopped at the Legion Park overlook at about 7:30. The sun was low in the sky, it was in the teens and heavy fog was lifting off the power-plant warmed surface of all three ponds. In fact, Leggett and Valmont-the two northern ponds-were totally hidden. But enough of Hillcrest, below the crest of the hill I was on, was visible to find three Tundra Swans among the hundreds of white-cheeked geese all still snoozing on the still water in the SC corner. Mingling with the geese was one Greater White-fronted Goose as well. I returned at 1:30 in the afternoon with John Vanderpoel. Although it seemed calm only a mile or so away, by the time we parked the car along 75th St. the wind was howling and the wind warmed air temp was 54 degrees. At times the winds was strong enough to stop us in our tracks as we pushed west toward Red Hill. In front of us was another birder (Peter Burke?) trying to hold tight to his scope, but he soon disappeared or blew away. We tried to scan the surface of Valmont, but any bird we could pick out soon was hidden behind a 5-foot wave. Those waves were crashing against the rock-wall of the dam and the gulls were wheeling around in hope of finding a stunned fish served up on the rocks. We gave up and returned to the car, but tried one last stop atop Legion Hill. The three swans remained in the SE corner as if the day hadn't change their plans at all. 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/SN1PR0301MB1648E6F2140ACA9719631349E1990%40SN1PR0301MB1648.namprd03.prod.outlook.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
