Doh - that should be AURORA Reservoir in Arapahoe County... obviously I need sleep....
On Monday, November 23, 2020 at 9:31:37 PM UTC-7 Cathy Sheeter wrote: > I posted several months ago about purchasing a pass to Aurora Reservoir. > And I have used it as much as my time allowed - seven visits since the end > of September. At the time I purchased the pass, I was sure I would be > turning up cool gulls left and right if I just put a bit of time into it! > And Gull numbers there are impressive! At times I have estimated 10-15,000 > gulls hanging out in the middle of the reservoir, with a few thousand more > on the shorelines. Those are honestly probably drastic undercounts. I > have watched streams of gulls in mass for 15-30 minutes at a time as they > return from the landfill. It has been educational to me to watch a shift > from fall when California Gulls rivaled Ring-billed in numbers, to recent > visits where 99% are Ring-billed. And I have looked.... and looked.... and > looked... and looked... (I think I have a scope tan at this point) and > found absolutely not a single "rare" gull....in all of my visits. As a > matter of fact, not even a single Bonaparte's (while Cherry Creek SP 15 > miles away has many). I am not sure if it is the warm fall, or I am just > not there at the right time of day (mostly in the mornings), but after > those seven trips my gull list includes only seven totally expected species > - Ring-billed, California, Franklin's, Herring, Iceland (Thayer's), Lesser > Black-backed, and Sabine's. Everything other than California and > Ring-billed have been less than 15 individuals of each total over all > visits- 15 HERG, 8 FRGU, 4 LBBG, 2 THGU, 3 SAGU. Of course this doesn't > mean there are not rare gulls there... I can not really see the ones out in > the middle of the reservoir and colder weather, or some ice, may bring in > some more interesting sightings later in the winter, but they will have to > be found by others, as I leave for Arizona next week and will be out there > all winter. Bon voyage Gulls of Arapahoe Reservoir....until we meet again! > > I hope everyone has a Happy and Healthy Holiday season! > > Cathy Sheeter > Arapahoe County > > -- 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/e21305a1-f231-47ee-910a-a6665ddee033n%40googlegroups.com.
