I took a few hours today touring around central Boulder County as the cold front moved in. First stop was at Baseline Reservoir which is now on its way to icing up. Present along the north side was a female/first year Black Scoter; either a new bird or the same one which has been at Baseline off and on for about a month, it seems.
With shrinking amounts of open water about, Valmont, my next stop, seems to be hosting more and more waterfowl. Of course almost all are way too far away to really enjoy, but as James pointed out the Tundra Swan that Peter Gent reported earlier has spent its entire weekend at this warm water resort and always right down in the southeast corner making it not only easy to see but even identify. I should also report that while I was at the Legion Park overlook an absolutely stunning Ferruginous Hawk drifted back and forth right at eye level and closer than the RR tracks. A walk along Boulder Creek at 75th was unproductive and the Cottonwood Pond at Walden Ponds was mostly frozen, so I headed further east. So called Big Gaynor near Oxford and 287 had thousands of geese around a moderately sized open hole in the ice-the same later on at Dodd Res. Between the two there were almost 20 Snow Geese including at least one adult Blue. Nevertheless the white-cheeked to snow ratio for the day was on the order of 1,000 to 1. (Since David Waltman's post just came in as I sit here composing, I should give the breakdown for my Snow Geese: 9 at Dodd and 9 at Big Gaynor). Next I tried Lagerman Reservoir which tends to stay open longer than most. It was almost totally open and finally I was able to find the Greater White-fronted Goose that has been wandering about the county and avoiding me all month. Even better was a stunning Pacific Loon. I ended my trek at Boulder Reservoir where the best find was Peter Gent. Bill Kaempfer Boulder -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobi...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
