I noticed that a couple of people reported a small flock of red-necked pharalope on Sombrero Marsh yesterday, so I went out there this morning to take a look. At first, there were none to be seen, but there were eight Great Blue Herons, some working the reeds on the west end, a couple out in the open, along with three Pelicans. A quick scan showed all three kinds of teal, with a pair of blue-wing and a pair of cinnamon in the reeds near the observation station. This is a great place to compare the cinnamon and blue-wing females, as they are close enough to get a really good look at them. A couple of pied-billed grebes were in the near reeds as well. Then, I saw a couple of pharalopes on the southeast corner of the pond, put the scope on them, and happy day, they were Red-necked Pharalopes. I saw a few Wilsons here over the weekend, so it was nice to see the Red-necked ones as well. Closer examination of the little pocket on the east end revealed a larger number of them, it was hard to tell how many, but more than eight. After some time, they all came out on the pond and headed towards the west end, and it was easy to count them. Sixteen total. Quite a sight, they were all bobbing their heads as they worked their way across the pond. I watched them for awhile, noticing some other ducks in the meantime - a few lesser scaup and one male greater scaup, a few ringnecks, northern shovelers, and bufflehead. I decided to walk along the road to see what birds were in the trees, keeping an eye on the reeds as well. I stopped a short distance down the road when I saw something working through the reeds near the road, and there was a sora in plain sight. I watched it for a minute or two, and then it disappeared into a thicker bunch of reeds, and stayed put. Other birds of interest were a couple of great-tailed grackle, a little flock of chipping sparrows and a couple of flycatchers. Finally, there was a Say's Phoebe flying around the east end of the marsh. For such a little spot, there always seems to be a good variety of birds around whenever I go there.
Happy birding - Jeff Parks Boulder 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/3c14578f-be4c-423c-9860-6f4c6bde9fbd%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
