All, To echo Dave, and with all of the posts lamenting the dearth of waterfowl North of I-70 and west of 85, I thought I'd share some thoughts as well. Indeed, many reservoirs Dave mentioned in and around the Fort Collins, Wellington, Windsor areas seem to be experiencing lower numbers than usual. The Mallards on Poudre #3 in Wellington have been impressive. And #4 seems to be holding good ducks as well. Other than some Goldeneye and Eared Grebes and Shovelers, Windsor Lake usually has far more birds. I went to Boyd Lake, Houts and Equalizer Reservoirs on Friday and other than a couple of good groups of Wigeon, it's pretty scarce other than geese. Though, I did not go to the southern end of Boyd which seems to be where most of the ducks have been congregating. Lake Loveland has been highly variable. Grebes have seemingly moved on.
Timnath Reservoir has not been experiencing this phenomenon. At least not with diving ducks. Specifically, Common Merganser numbers are higher than I've seen there. Dabblers are there but not in great numbers. I suspect the extremely low water levels killed off some of the vegetation that would normally be there in the shallows. I have stopped by Timnath about every other day for the last two weeks. Gizzard Shad and other possible feeder fish are more than abundant. I have seen hundreds of instances of successful dives in recent weeks. I even watched a Bald Eagle hunting WITH the gulls and Mergansers. I stopped counting Common Mergs at 3000 this morning and it was probably between 4000-5000. Mind you, I tend to be ultra-conservative with the numbers I estimate. A few Red-breasted Mergs were in the group and I picked out a Hooded Merg as well. DC Cormorants and Pelicans remain in decent numbers. A smattering of Redhead, Lesser Scaup, and Common Goldeneye get lost in MergMania. I did find one Male Barrow's Goldeneye in the mix on Friday and again this morning. Along with the divers, a 5000+ flock of Cacklers/Canadas are finding sustenance in the nearby corn/ag fields and resting on the water. Nick K had 8 GWF geese there last week and I saw at least 5 of the same birds later in the day. A few Snows and Ross's and hybrids as well. And then there are the GULLS. 3000+ at least. There were large parts of the shoreline this morning that looked snow covered for the gulls. They of course are letting the Mergs do the majority of the hunting for them. California, Ring-billed, Herring are represented in great numbers. Several Lesser Black-backed and Thayer's are present as well. Surprisingly, I have seen no Bonaparte's there. So...If you're desperate to spend several hours scoping a reservoir, Timnath is where it's at for the moment up here in the northern tier. Bring a chair. I haven't had the time to spend more than an hour there and frankly it hasn't been enough and I feel like you'd need 4 hours to say you put in a solid effort. Scope absolutely required. Every pass with my scope yielded something I didn't see the pass before. The sun is far enough south at this point that viewing from either the west side parking lot or northeastern side Wildwing Swim Beach works in the morning. Afternoon is definitely better from the west. Perhaps if there are good waterfowl numbers still sitting north of us, this system moving in later this week will push more down to us. Birds I wouldn't be surprised to find or hear someone found there beyond the expected: Brant, more Scoters, Red-throated or Yellow-billed Loons, Mew Gull, Glaucous Gull, more Kittiwakes, Jaeger sp. (I know it's late but...). Maybe the Barnacle and Pink-footed will stop 35 miles further north this winter...One can hope. Bird is the word! Josh Bruening Fort Collins -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/8ffb2090-3455-498f-a5bc-cfd13916a452%40googlegroups.com.
