Hello, birders.
I visited Timnath Reservoir, Larimer County, early this morning, Sunday, August 14th. The place has fairly low water, very few shorebirds, and gazillions of non-shorebird aquatic avian species. Amid the many hundreds of Double-crested Cormorants was an adult Neotropic Cormorant. The bird was hanging out mainly by itself in a tree at 40.5538 North, 104.9531 West. This is in the northeast arm of the reservoir, with access from Majestic View Drive, a semi-abandoned, semi-public stretch near the northeast shore of the reservoir. Re-finding the Neotropic Cormorant will probably be something of a needle-in-a-haystack effort, what with all the Double-crested Cormorants out there. Plumage-wise, you're looking for an adult typical of this time of year, i.e., not as brightly patterned as in spring; nonetheless, the white brace around the fairly small and yellow-orange gular patch, especially below the gular patch, is reasonably conspicuous. And, as always, go for size and structure; compared to a few nearby Double-crested Cormorants (they came and went), the Neotropic stood out for being long-tailed and puny overall. Otherwise, Timnath was loaded with gulls (including a goodly number of Franklin's); a few Black Terns; many Pied-billed Grebes and an obscenity of Western Grebes (although only a few Clark's); nearly 50 Snowy Egrets and about a half dozen Great Egrets; many Redheads, Gadwalls, and Northern Pintails; and scattered Plegadis ibises, all of which seemed to be pretty straightforward White-faces. The only shorebirds, other than Killdeer, were Wilson's Phalaropes. But there's a lot of ground (er, mud and water) out there to cover, and I didn't hit all of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if someone finds the shorebirds I couldn't find. In the landbird department, a few Brewer's Sparrows and only one Chipping Sparrow were on the move; also Lark Sparrows. Great place. Very birdy, and I bet it will offer additional delights in the weeks to come. ------------------------------- Ted FloydEditor, Birding Please check out the website of the ABA: http://tinyurl.com/6kmbfvx And please check out The ABA Blog: http://tinyurl.com/4n6qswt We're on twitter, too: http://tinyurl.com/2ejzlzv ------------------------------- -- 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.
