We had a group of 8 Trumpeter Swans fly over us about 10:15 am at Horsetooth Reservoir on the east side across from Inlet Bay near the southern end of the reservoir. The birds flew north over us and then turned west and flew over the ridge towards Inlet Bay when we lost them. One bird or a couple birds called in the flock a few times with the diagnostic low-toned honk. We were able to get wel-lit side views of the birds in the scope as they turned towards the West. The views were distant, but bill shape looked good for Trumpeter Swan on the couple of birds I saw fairly well. There is a chance there were silent Tundra Swans mixed in the group, but we only heard Trumpeter Swans.
Here are the ebird checklists for all the birds we had at Horsetooth Reservoir this morning: US-CO-Fort Collins-3756-3946 W County Road 38 E - 40.5190x-105.1489, Larimer, Colorado, US Nov 22, 2015 8:52 AM - 9:40 AM Protocol: Traveling 0.5 mile(s) Comments: With Chris White <br />Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.1.3 Build 30 12 species (+3 other taxa) Canada Goose 1 Cackling/Canada Goose 20 Mallard 1 Common Goldeneye 3 Horned Grebe 1 Western Grebe 1 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Ring-billed Gull 20 California Gull 1 gull sp. 10 Northern Flicker 1 Black-billed Magpie 1 Common Raven 2 American Tree Sparrow/Spizella sp. 1 American Goldfinch 1 US-CO-Fort Collins-3590-3754 W County Road 38 E - 40.5239x-105.1455, Larimer, Colorado, US Nov 22, 2015 9:59 AM - 10:22 AM Protocol: Stationary Comments: <br />Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 1.1.3 Build 30 6 species (+1 other taxa) Canada Goose 6 Trumpeter Swan 8 Observed and heard calling over horsetooth res. Circled once then flew to west over ridge. ID'ed by call. Corroborated with distant visual ID. Ring-billed Gull 12 California Gull 6 Herring Gull 2 gull sp. 30 Black-billed Magpie 1 View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25947179 This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org) Happy Birding! Jeff Birek (and Chris White) Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (formerly Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory) Fort Collins -- 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/b77f7146-b404-45ab-a7b8-b1a3cb0001b1%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
