Congratulations to Jim Beatty for discovering and documenting the mega-rare Yellow-billed Loon at Groundhog Reservoir in Dolores County on June 25!
Intrigued by the rarity of that far northern breeder, a rarity in CO even in winter, I looked for similar eBird records meeting these criteria: inland sightings in the Lower 48 states in June and July. A brief perusal of that database revealed that: Jim's YBLO is the first one for CO during that two month span, BUT, rarities do happen. There was one from Oklahoma last June, with photos: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31751623 and records from AZ in June & July with great photos: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S30044964 and one from Nevada in summer. All of these sightings were from SOUTH of Colorado. I hope that birders can head for the Groudhog to enjoy the mega-out of place "Gavia giganticus," (my nickname), far from its boreal birthplace. Nicknames? Pete Dunne's nickname for the largest loon is "Tanto-billed Loon." Tanto? I had to look it up. *"Tanto - A Japanese short sword or dagger."* Who knew? Among Colorado birders, the usual nickname is "Yellow Balloon." Those reports support the observations that although most YBLO's are far north and west of CO in summer, they have occurred and "in a rare way" are to be expected. I have seen Yellow-billed Loon in seven counties, but not Dolores (so far). Joe Roller, Denver -- 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/CAJpZcUCwVhbZQEvn%2B_WShDN%3DKBZw96EV9bhEnCQUnoKkgiu-kw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
