Thank you Caleb, I agree. Hopefully another rarity will turn up that will be worth the drive for you ;) Joe Kipper Fort Collins
On Friday, June 25, 2021 at 9:41:10 AM UTC-6 Caleb Strand wrote: > Hi All, > > I am currently working out in Central Nebraska, so I was intrigued when > Steve’s Mlodinow’s report of an Arctic Loon at Walden Reservoir came in, as > it was only around a day’s drive from me and some of the other birders out > here in Nebraska who would have loved to see the bird. Throughout the > evening, after Steve reported the bird, many birders noted one Arctic Loon > and one rather obvious Common Loon, looks of the Arctic Loon were distant > and poor for birders throughout that day and most birders were going off > Steve’s description to tick this bird, as they couldn’t quite see the field > marks due to the conditions. The following day, after a handful of birders > went out looking for the bird, the only two loons present on the lake were > Commons, with one obvious bird and another rather Arctic-looking Common > Loon that 1st drew birder’s attention by the rather smooth-looking > demarkation on the neck and white flanks. The structure of this bird was > off for Arctic and when the bird’s neck left the resting posture it was > obvious that it had a large white collar at the base, instantly eliminating > Arctic Loon. Later on in the day, when photos were posted by Nick Moore and > Steven Mlodinow of the bird, there was much discussion on the ID across the > country with a few opinions by good birders with experience with the > species such as Gary Rosenberg and Cameron Cox, both of which suggested > that by the pics provided, the bird looked fine for Common Loon and very > off for Arctic. > > To my dismay, this still wasn’t enough for anyone to publicly suggest on > this platform that the bird was missIDed, but instead, more reports were > coming in requesting for updates on if the bird had been relocated and some > even suggested that people were on the wrong bird and area which blew my > mind (people really wanted this bird to be an Arctic)! > > A couple days ago, Nick Komar photographed a loon that in some pics looks > identical to Nick and Steve’s loon but in other pics it obviously shows a > white collar. Joe Kipper’s photos of the same loon make this bird look like > an obvious Common that wouldn’t draw many birders’ attention at all. What > more is needed for people to understand that there was never any Arctic > Loon present? > > There are still eBird reports with this loon labeled as an Arctic. I hope > the Colorado Review Team will soon reach out to these people and update > them on the correct ID of the bird. > > Anyways, I was keeping up with the posts on here and was seeing very mixed > signs on what the identification on this loon was so thought I would make > the claim that nobody else was willing to make on here, as there are still > some birders who aren’t sure what is going on with this loon. > > Caleb > > > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/CFO/Membership/ --- 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/64ed0ce9-99b5-4090-8cd5-c029750f3bf9n%40googlegroups.com.
