Marlene Bruning and I drove down from Boulder County to take our chances on the Ross's Gull show. We found the birders watching and scanning from the Lake Loop around 9 AM and saw a scope bird flying along the dam and then alighting in front of the dam. We followed the vehicle procession to the very NW corner of the lake, and as Bob Andrews described, and further described today by Joe Roller, headed out on the trail below the dam to find the bird on a tiny sandbar where we got very good views of the bird. This is a great spot. Bring some coffee and a chair, because this is becoming a reliable spot.
When it flew around the northwest corner a little later, it seemed to pluck a morsel from the lake, and was pursued by Ring-billed Gull that wanted to take its food, the tiny gull easily powered up and higher from the chaser as to swallow its catch. The cold front that came in later was an amazing change of conditions on the lake from a balmy 54 to 30 degrees in about an hour. A huge flock of pelicans swirled above with gulls and geese, including one Snow Goose. Later- another birder pointed out a dowitcher near the bird deck, we spotted a Harlan's Hawk soaring south of the reservoir, and we finally found a Pacific Loon near the northeast corner of the lake. Birder optic value estimate at 10:00am easily $75,000 if not $100,000! :) How things have changed! If any birders captured photos on the sand bar today, I would love to see them. Thanks to Joe, Glenn, and Cole for finding and sharing this cool bird, and with countless other birders helping people today with seeing the bird. Sincerely, -- Scott Scott Severs Longmont, CO http://picasaweb.google.com/scottesevers -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobi...@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.
