Greetings All, At Douglass Reservoir North of Fort Collins today I spotted a late Tern. My conundrum is I'm not sure what species it is. I'm leaning towards Arctic but can't rule out Common and I see one characteristic found in Forester's. Arguments for Arctic include uniform gray upperside to wings, weak dark carpel bar, and dark primary tips on the underside of wings. The thickness and extent of dark in the wingtips along with the size of the bill make me think its a Common. Muddying the picture is the grayish tail contrasting with the white rump that is found on Forester's Tern. Although hard to see in these photos, I can detect dark outer tail feathers growing in that Forester's shouldn't have. I counted it as Common/Arctic on ebird but would like to put a definite name to it. If anyone can help do that, please respond.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/122221383@N05/15114997074/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/122221383@N05/15733028691/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/122221383@N05/15549763067/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/122221383@N05/15550121520/ I should add that I went to Douglass to look for a possible Yellow-billed Loon. Yesterday at sundown, I saw a large, light-headed, heavily barred (on the back) Loon that appeared to have a straw colored bill. The caveat though is I saw it in the amber hued light of sunset and that was likely the reason for the yellow bill. This morning I saw 3 Common Loons but no Yellow-billed. If anybody ventures out there be on the look-out for it. Also seen today: Golden & Bald Eagles, M &F Northern Harriers, Pintails, 3 Herring Gulls (1 Vega like), and a Northern Shrike. David Wade Ft Collins 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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/f35bc345-727e-4c29-a006-82448a739358%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
