Sorry I didn't get this out last night, but just getting to my computer this morning. Anyway, after a relatively fruitless shorebirding run along one of my old routes in Northeastern Colorado (basically Prospect Res out to Jackson Res, Weld & Morgan Cos.) yesterday (Sat., 29 Apr 17), decided to swing back by Union Reservoir (Weld Co.) as I knew it had some shoreline; everything else is chockablock, but paradoxically many old farm ponds were dry.
Glad I made that choice as while there were a few fun shorebirds, the bird of the day was a fist year GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL which swept through the northwest corner of the lake and gave a good view. Decent sized, very uniformly tan gull, with translucent primaries, and good sized all black bill. Definitely a nice surprise. In terms of the shorebirds, the "fun" ones included three (3) BLACK-NECKED STILTS, two (2) AMERICAN AVOCETS, a MARBLED GODWIT, a couple of WILLETS, and a SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, amongst others. So, if you are hankering for shorebirds before the main push of passerines make their showing, I'd recommend hitting Union. Good Birding, Doug Ward PS - As this is my first regular post here to Cobirds, I'm bringing my posting etiquette from another listserve, so if you think the CAPITALIZED species of interest reporting, not just rarities, is too much like yelling here, just let me know and I'll adapt. Plus I need to get into checking and reporting to the rare bird alert posting as well (suppose I should be reading those too). 29 April 2017 Union Reservoir, Weld Co., CO Canada Goose - 2 Mallard - 6 Blue-winged Teal - 4m 4f Cinnamon Teal - 1m 1f Northern Shoveler - 4m Green-winged Teal - 2m 2f Western Grebe - 30 Double-crested Cormorant - 10 Great Blue Heron - 1 Bald Eagle - 1 ad Red-tailed Hawk - 1 American Avocet - 2 Black-necked Stilt - 3 Semipalmated Plover - 1 Killdeer - 15 Marbled Godwit - 1 Least Sandpiper - 1 Semipalmated Sandpiper - 5 Wilson's Snipe - 1 Willet - 2 Lesser Yellowlegs - 1 Bonaparte's Gull - 2ad 1-1st Franklin's Gull - 4ad Ring-billed Gull - 1ad GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL - 1-1st Eurasian Collared-Dove - 4 Mourning Dove - 6 American Kestrel - 1 Say's Pheobe - 2 (out on mudflats feeding with peeps & Semi Plover - weird) Black-billed Magpie - 2 Northern Rough-winged Swallow - 2 Tree Swallow - 50 Violet-green Swallow - 10 Barn Swallow - 20 swallow sp. - 150 American Robin - 3 European Starling - 20 Yellow-rumped Warbler - 10 "Myrtle" Song Sparrow - 1 Red-winged Blackbird - 15 Western Meadowlark - 3 Yellow-headed Blackbird - 10 Common Grackle - 5 House Finch - 1 -- 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/002701d2c1c2%2408cd63a0%241a682ae0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
