COBirds, Wandered a bit through Larimer County (and a few meters into Weld Co.) this afternoon from about noon to 5pm enjoying the birds and spring rain. 98% of birding was done from inside the car, considering the rainy, chilly, and at times, windy conditions. Forgot it was the official big day date, else maybe I would have gotten started earlier and planned the day better. Maybe not though, crappy weather.
Started off scanning "Duck Lake" (according to google maps), south side of CR 32 near the southwest corner of Fossil Creek Reservoir. This little pond has been quite birdy lately. Lots of Ruddy Ducks, Shovelers, two pairs of Eared Grebes, some gulls, some distant flyby shorebirds, etc. Then off to Timnath Reservoir, but on the way I had to stop and scan the cattail marsh at the NE corner of CR 13 and CR 78 (across the county line into WELD), which was full of screeching Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, at least a couple Great-tailed Grackles, calling Virginia Rail(s), and a Black-necked Stilt. Timnath Res. had a few ducks at the marshy eastern edge, including the day's only Ring-necked Ducks. Lark Sparrows were feeding in the main parking lot, with one alternate Horned Grebe and thousands of swallows (Barn, Tree, Cliff, Violet-green at least) fighting the wind inches over the water. A couple Lark Buntings flushed on the drive out. Without having much of a plan, I headed back to town and then north on Hwy 1/Terry Lake Road/CR 15 in hopes of flooded fields full of birds. Well it sure ain't Texas, but I did have a very pleasant and birdy drive north towards Wyoming. Best birding was along CR 15 between Douglas Reservoir and Soapstone Prairie Natural Area, as there is more unplowed natural grassland along this stretch. Soapstone Prairie is temporarily closed so I had to turn around, but drove nice and slow as the area hosted Sage Thrasher, Cassin's Kingbirds, dozens of Spizellas (good mix of Chipping, Brewer's, Clay-colored), a couple Lark Buntings and Vesper Sparrows, and at least 8 (!) Loggerhead Shrikes. Ended the day with just over 60 species, with a boatload of notable misses, having not walked any wooded areas or foothills. Not a single crow or raven all day, not a single warbler, etc etc. Still a great day of spring birding!!! Also one Black-tailed Jackrabbit and one big 'ol buck Pronghorn Antelope just south of the Soapstone Prairie locked gate. Species list with rough totals for the day: Canada Goose - 30 Gadwall - 10 Mallard - 5 Blue-winged Teal - 5 Cinnamon Teal - 2 Northern Shoveler - 60 Ring-necked Duck - 2 Lesser Scaup - 25 Ruddy Duck - 60 Pied-billed Grebe - 1 Horned Grebe - 1 Eared Grebe - 4 Western Grebe - 50 Double-crested Cormorant - 2 American White Pelican - 50 Great Blue Heron - 5 Turkey Vulture - 3 Osprey - 1 Bald Eagle - 2 Swainson's Hawk - 2 Red-tailed Hawk - 2 Virginia Rail - 1 American Coot - 10-20 Black-necked Stilt - 1 Killdeer - 2 Spotted Sandpiper - 2 shorebird sp. - 10 (distant flybys) Bonaparte's Gull - 1 Franklin's Gull - 6 gull sp. - 20 (RBGU/CAGU, too distant to bother) Rock Pigeon - 5 Eurasian Collared-Dove - 20 Mourning Dove - 20 Northern Flicker - 1 American Kestrel - 3 Say's Phoebe - 4-6 Cassin's Kingbird - 3 Western Kingbird - 4 Loggerhead Shrike - 8 Blue Jay - 3 Horned Lark - 2 Tree Swallow - hundreds Violet-green Swallow - few Barn Swallow - hundreds Cliff Swallow - hundreds American Robin - a few Sage Thrasher - 1 European Starling Chipping Sparrow - dozens Clay-colored Sparrow - several Brewer's Sparrow - dozens Vesper Sparrow - 6 Lark Bunting - 5 Lincoln's Sparrow - 2 White-crowned Sparrow - 3 Red-winged Blackbird - dozens in marshes Western Meadowlark - a couple dozen at most, not a ton Yellow-headed Blackbird - 20 Brewer's Blackbird - 50 Common Grackle - 10 Great-tailed Grackle - 2+ Lesser Goldfinch - 1 heard only CR15 A handful of subpar photos from today: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26102738@N07/ Good birding, Derek Hill Fort Collins kingle...@yahoo.com -- 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/d90712cf-0ef7-476f-8b4c-7062b5fc1514%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
