I began at Aurora Res at dawn, finding an icy world. Judging by the trackless snow, I was the first one on the dam this year. The reservoir was nearly all frozen, with only scattered small areas of open water. Still, there were were many *Cackling Geese* (maybe 30,000), and representative *Snow*, *Ross's* and *Gr. White-fronted*. There were hardly any ducks, given very limited open water, but a trio of *Long-tailed Ducks* was present at one hole. 3000+ gulls were vastly *Ring-billed*, but I noted the more expected larger species. Also: 1 *Northern Shrike*, 1 *Prairie Falcon* and some *Bald Eagles*.
Moving east I explored several roads of the far eastern portion of Arapahoe County, east of the I-70 arc - essentially from Byers and Deer Trail east. A seasonally rare *Loggerhead Shrike* was near the north end of CR 241. A *Northern Shrike* was along CR 38 at Deer Trail between Hwy 40 and East Bijou Creek. I had a small number of *Lapland Longspurs* flying over CR 42 and CR 269. *Horned Larks* seemed only moderately plentiful. Some snow cover helped, though. I had a nice sample of raptors in that area east of I-70. They turned out to be pretty diverse altogether: 3 *Golden Eagles*, 2 *Northern Harriers*, 1 *Bald Eagle*, 1 *Red-tailed Hawk*, 2 *Rough-legged Hawks*, 4 *Ferruginous Hawks*, 1 *Great Horned Owl*, 1 *Short-eared Owl, *6* Am. Kestrels, *and 1 *Prairie Falcon*. The Short-eared was active mid-day vying with a male Northern Harrier and attendant Rough-legged for interest in a fresh road-kill along Hwy 34 west of CR 269. David Suddjian Ken Caryl Valley 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/CAGj6RorDkH0Se1HkW8NgS3iQDqFn-GChzrkO9aB6fKMj1FN2aw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
