I bit the bullet and purchased a pass to the Aurora Parks system that covers Aurora Reservoir and Quincey Reservoir. These two locations are only 10-15 minutes from my house, but since they have a fee, I rarely bird them, and most other people do not either. Despite relatively infrequent birding Aurora Res. has in the past turned up such goodies as Yellow-billed Loon and Slatey-backed Gull (found by other birders, not myself) and Quincey has hosted a Brown Pelican and Brant in the past, so I look forward to seeing what I can find with frequent visits. I will try to hit these locations at least every other week until I leave for Arizona and hopefully find some interesting birds this fall/winter and help flush out their ebird hotspot lists further.
Yesterday I hit Aurora Res and walked about 1/3 of the loop. There is some exposed shore line, but not a huge number of shore birds. Baird's were in good numbers. One Sanderling, one Pectoral, and a handful of other expected shorebird species. Gull numbers (who utilize the nearby landfill every day) were already substantial - likely around 3000+, however I wasn't able to pull out a large diversity. One Lesser-black-backed. The majority of Gulls were California, and Ring-billed, with Cals being the most abundant species. Much of the time the flocks were on the furthest shore line and/or in the middle of the reservoir, so not great looks. Riparian habitat on the section I walked was overall rather poor, but still held a decent numbers of passerine migrants. The reservoir, as a whole has a good diversity of habitat at this location from grasslands to a few groves of trees with willows. Full checklist at: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73500445 Today I walked the entire 3.5 mile loop around Quincey Reservoir, a place I have never birded before, to scout out the habitat. Throughout much of the reservoir there is a lot of excellent riparian habitat with many mature trees, willows, and plenty of understory cover. Despite this, it was not as birdy as I had hoped overall. There is zero shore bird habitat and other than one Spotted Sandpiper, no shorebirds. I did get into two different groups of warblers numbering around 25-30 warblers each, with best birds being a Nashville, and numerous Townsend's. Unsurprisingly Wilson's were most abundant. A surprising lack of empidonax (1 Willow was all I saw), again despite what looks like excellent habitat and plenty of insects for them. Nothing super exciting that tripped the ebird filters, but the place holds a lot of promise for migration, and I look forward to visiting again soon. Full checklist at: https://ebird.org/checklist/S73546620 Good birding- Cathy Sheeter - Aurora, 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/48e33715-7724-473a-bb16-01904cfa09cfn%40googlegroups.com.
