Dear Cobirders,
I headed out to Union Reservoir this morning to try to relocate the
possible Yellow-billed Loon spotted yesterday by Mike Blatchley and
Bob Zilly. Upon arriving, I quickly scanned the reservoir and was
able to relocate one basic plumaged Common Loon. Also present was a
Pacific/Arctic-type Loon. This Loon was along the western shore of
the reservoir and was easily seen from the south shore. My initial
impression from the amount of white along the flanks (when relaxed)
and the head shape was Arctic Loon. The bird was observed for 45
minutes and dove only twice for about 1 minute each. The bird lazily
preened but never gave good looks of the vent region making
observation of a vent strap impossible. The bird had a white throat
with a small dark spot confined to the center of the throat and
unconnected with the cheeks (i.e. no "necklace" of black); in
addition, the hind-neck of the bird at the base of the neck was
considerably darker than the rest of the neck. The bird was observed
by myself, Mike Blatchley and Bob Zilly. I personally observed the
bird from 8:45-9:30 AM when the wind picked up considerably and made
viewing difficult. Obviously caution in separating Pacific and Arctic
must be used: hopefully someone else can get out there and get a
better looks at key identification marks.
Cheers,
Walter Szeliga
Boulder, CO
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Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/
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