[cobirds] Barr Lake today
I thought I'd follow up on my earlier post about the jaeger (more on him/her in minute) with a summary of our outing. I had my monthly museum group out at Barr Lake today, and it was a quite productive day. We started by harrassing the inimitable Meredith McB at the banding station, where she retaliated with a fusillade of Wilson's warblers, intimidating us into a quick retreat. But we'd be back. Next stop was a walk down to the Pioneer Trail blind, where a cooperative peregrine falcon posed on a snag for us. A quick scope scan of the lake revealed hundreds of western grebes, and with a little imagination we converted a few of them into Clark's. That's our story, and we're stickin' to itWe had good numbers of orange-crowned, yellow-rumped and Wilson's warblers. However, my entry of eight orange-crowns was roundly rebuked by eBird, and it didn't like my western wood-pewee either, which kind of hurt my feelings. But I persisted, and Mr. eBird relented. We then slunk back to the banding station, where Meredith cut us some slack, as well as a couple of good birds. A nice Hammond's flycatcher (a small individual with some characteristics overlapping with least) emerged from a bag, followed by a hermit thrush. Then came a mystery sparrow, which after some discussion we agreed to call a Lincoln's, and a sorry one indeed. The poor bird looked like it had been in bar fight and lost. Elbowed aside by the sixth or seventh busload of grade-schoolers (Meredith, how do you do it?), we set out for the lake, where out by the island was a sizable flock of gulls that we could no longer ignore with good conscience. The group proved to consist of 100+ Californias, with a smattering of ringers, Franklins and a herring or two. Some searching turned up a Sabine's lurking behind a ponderous Cal, followed by another fly-by Sabine's. Next up was the Neidrach Trail and boardwalk. Things initially didn't look too promising, but we did pick up a couple of eared grebes and a few assorted ducks. A couple of birds lurking on the distant grassy beach yielded several mis-identifications until we finally decided to trek down the trail for a closer look. They quickly proved to be plovers, and finally, two American golden-plovers. Other than a couple of killdeer, they were the only shorebirds we saw all day. by this time I was beginning to feel like a certified eBird reject. We closed things out with a jaeger sp that was coursing back and forth across the lake to the northeast. After following it with binos at considerable distance for a minute, we thought we saw it settle on the water far down the lake, closer to the dam. So, we hoofed it back to the parking lot and headed down to the boat launch to see if we could refind the bird. We could not. I will be interest to see if it reappears. While we were walking/driving down to the launch, the bird had plenty of time to relocate. Our consolation prize was a couple more Sabine's, which may or may not have been the same two we had seen to the west earlier. Please post if you 1) relocate the jeager and 2) have any idea which species it is. Norm Lewis Lakewood, 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/15ee540d4de-c12-d357%40webjas-vaa149.srv.aolmail.net. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
[cobirds] Barr Lake Today (Adams)
After Alec Hopping's report I headed out to Barr Lake this morning and had a nice time. The vast majority of the water is frozen but openings remain. The number of birds around sunrise was amazing, but gull and geese numbers dropped drastically as the day warmed up. A small ice hole near the boat launch had a good number of large gulls including a first year Thayer's. This was a nice place for point blank views. The biggest hole in the ice is best viewed from the banding station. It held a Ross's x Cackling Goose, over forty Herring gulls and a Lesser Black-backed Gull. As the morning steam lifted the gull number began to drop. By the time I made the long walk to the opening in the south west corner of the res the majority of gulls had left and right before I got to look at the geese about half the flock left to leave. I still found a group of 28 Snow and 8 Ross's Goose and a single Greater White-fronted Goose. The flock of dabblers held one male Mexican Duck integrade. The first I've seen showing some of the greenish mallard head color. Overall a fun day and worth checking as good birds could easily still be hiding out there. Nick Moore 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/CAEfNQ5kbw702KpPZFgKut4k11G8dsphARZf%2BCwdvGU2b4jpzrw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
[cobirds] Barr Lake today (Adams County)
My fall has been busy and I have not had much time to bird here in CO, so loved being outside on such a glorious fall day today. Nothing REALLY spectacular, except for some impressive numbers for November. Over 500 American White Pelicans are still staging at Barr. An estimated 1200 Double Crested Cormorants were lined up on the far shoreline in the early afternoon (didn't see any in the AM)! I guess with the water level so low the fish must be concentrated in available water. In the mud flat that used to be the lake behind the visitors center was a large group of shore birds... which turned out to be almost exclusively Killdeer! Over 400 of them including a further out flock on the wing of 100+! And pretending to be shore birds both on the mud flats and various other areas on the lake I tallied over 700 Green-winged Teal. A few late migrants included one Least and one Semipalmated Sandpiper (plus a couple of Pecs) on the mud flats. A late Orange Crowned Warbler was on the back side of the dam. I didn't fully pick over the gull flocks, which were mostly very distant, but did find two Lesser Black-backed (one adult, one first cycle), one Thayer's Gull (First Cycle) and an assortment of the other expected species early in the AM when most were loafing. I also found a dapper juvenile Harris's Sparrow on the back side of the dam (FOS for me). Full list at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S20441342 Good birding- Cathy Sheeter Aurora -- 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/ead735da-9be5-4292-90de-b36240710829%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
[cobirds] Barr Lake today - Adams County
I enjoyed a lovely few hours in the sun today at Barr Lake. Birds of note included 1 Cordilleran Flycatcher, 1 Gray FC, and two slightly early migrant Nashville Warblers (the NAWA are on the boat ramp side of the park in the ditch). There were also MANY Yellow Warblers around (mostly females/juveniles), House Wrens in abundance, and Chickadees and Goldfinch calling from all directions. Most of the Kingbirds of both variety have left, as have almost all of the Orioles (I only saw one juvenile male Bullock's left). Shore birds are not many though shore line is abundant (water is fairly low), with just a few Yellowlegs (both species), and Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers (of course Killdeer too). I didn't carry my scope, but what I could see of water birds included a good size group of Western Grebes (with a couple of Clarks mixed in) and little else of note. I got some decent shots of the Nashville Warblers which can be found on my Flickr site at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aphelionart/ Happy birding- Cathy Sheeter Ft. Lupton, 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/2cae95ec-5729-4a52-a033-d4bbaa552122%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
[cobirds] Barr Lake Today (Tundra Swan)
Beautiful day at Barr lake today, and plenty of bird action. Tens of thousands of Canada/Cackling Geese were the star, with small numbers of Snow Geese mixed in. There was one flyover of 20 Snow Geese, otherwise, all were mixed in in ones and twos with the white-cheeked. We were able to single out 3 or 4 Ross.' Of the 7 or so Bald Eagles we saw today, a lakeside flyover by an adult, sending thousands of Geese into the air, was exciting to be next to. There was one pair of adult Tundra Swans on the East end of the lake, easily viewed from the Niedrach loop, which is just outside the visitor's center. Other waterfowl included many Shovelers and Mallards, Pintail, Gadwall, Western Grebes (about 50), Horned Grebes (3), Com. Merganser (3 f), Pied-billed Grebes, Buffleheads, etc. Raptors included one very dark-morph Red-tailed, vying for space with one of two very-light morphs. Also a very dark Rough-legged Hawk gave us a flyover. We heard one Great-Horned Owl hooting just before dusk as we left. There were also several Kestrels. Song Sparrows, Juncos, Goldfinches, Blue Jays, Chickadees, Flickers, Downys, etc, added to the 34 species we saw today. Dave Cameron Denver -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@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.
[cobirds] Barr Lake today
Two Great Horned Owls sitting on nests, within a few hundred yards of each other. A third Great Horned nest, but with the bird barely visible through trees. A Bald Eagle sitting on a nest; also four other Balds A Canada Goose sitting on a nest she's built immediately under the Gazebo boardwalk Many Western Meadowlarks Thousands and thousands of Shovelers Ruddy Ducks (3) Ring-necks, Gadwalls, Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Wigeons, Green-wing Teal Collared Doves Great-tailed and Common Grackles Much hustle and bustle at the Heron and Cormorant rookery: at least 20 Heron nests, and probably twice that many Cormorant nests. Lots of hauling of nest material going on. Green-tailed Towhee (heard) White-crowned Sparrows Red-tails and Harriers Nice close-up view of a pair of preening Kestrels 1 Blue Jay Dave Cameron Denver -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@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.
[cobirds] Barr Lake today
Not the busiest day today, bird-wise, at Barr, but some highlights: Fervent nest-building actvity by a great many Great Blue Herons and DC Cormorants Two gorgeous breeding-plumage Horned Grebes 8 Wood Ducks, incl 3 pairs and 2 bachelors Possible Lesser Black-backed Gull A very active pair of Kestrels 2 Ring-Necked Pheasants Several Killdeer Pied-billed Grebes 1 Green-Winged Teal Western Meadowlarks Am. Goldfinches And of course, the Bald Eagles on the nest. Dave Cameron Denver -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en To unsubscribe, reply using remove me as the subject.
[cobirds] Barr Lake today
- A very large flock of White-Faced Ibis, maybe 200 birds. We were unable to single out any Glossy Ibis in the crowd. - Several (6 or 7) Swainson's Hawks - Green-Tailed and Spotted Towhees - One Bald Eagle Parent and one Eaglet on the nest - Tree Swallows - One Pink-Sided Junco (LOY?) - American Goldfinch - White Pelicans - Both Myrtle and Audubon's Warblers - Large numbers of nesting Great Blue Herons and Double- Crested Cormorants - Spotted Sandpipers - Kildeer - Wood Duck - Quite a few Western Kingbirds - Chipping Sparrows - White-Crowned Sparrows - Lark Sparrows - House Wrens Dave Cameron Denver --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ Join us at the 2009 Convention in Alamosa: http://cfo-link.org/convention/index.php You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
