Hello, Birders. Here is the recap of the birding trip to the Valmont Reservoir complex, Boulder County, held yesterday, Saturday, Jan. 9th. The birding was good, but first a word about the humans. We had 109 people sign in at the beginning of the outing, and I know of at least 12 others who did not sign in. Plus, there were widespread reports of "many others" who came in a bit late. So call it a bare minimum of 121 birders--and perhaps a fair bit more than that. Regardless, it was fantastic to see well over 100 birders on a midwinter afternoon at an industrial plant with a bunch of seagulls... Here's what we found: Geese. The early-evening fly-in involved close to 5,000 birds, most of them Canadas, including a lot of "Lessers." Just a few dozen Cacklings. Didn't see the Ross's and Snow Geese found during the scouting trip the day before. Ducks. The highlight was a beautiful drake Mandarin Duck. This bird was 1.02 miles from the site near the Boulder County airport where 1-3 Mandarin Ducks had been present in late December. And check this out. Bill Schmoker just received a photo of another Mandarin Duck seen recently along Boulder Creek near the Boulder Public Library some 4.17 miles away. Mandarin Ducks have invaded Boulder County! Quick! Get the phones! Where's the CBRC when you need 'em! Otherwise, duck diversity was decent, although with lower-than-usual numbers for midwinter at Valmont. We saw at least 15 species, including one each of Northern Pintail, Lesser Scaup, and Bufflehead, at least 13 Hooded Mergansers, and at least 40 Red-breasted Mergansers. The only species in triple digits were Redhead (110) and Ring-necked Duck (121). Grebes. Nice to see a single Horned Grebe and, even better, a single Clark's Grebe, rare in the winter in the northern Front Range region. Pied-billed and Western grebes were in the low double digits. Double-crested Cormorant. Three adults. Herons. Three Black-crowned Night-Herons and at least 10 Great Blue Herons. A beautiful sight, by the way, was 2 adult Black-crowned Night Herons, 2 drake Hooded Mergansers, and the drake Mandarin Duck, all in the scope at the same time, and all with perfect midafternoon, midwinter lighting. Raptors. Valmont always puts on a good midwinter raptor show for us, and yesterday was no exception. Highlights included an adult male "Prairie" Merlin perched on a pole; a juvenile Prairie Falcon perched on a(nother) pole; the usual Bald and Golden eagles, with splendid viewing of both species; at least three Ferruginous Hawks and an uncommon Rough-legged Hawk; and a high-flying adult female Northern Harrier savagely mobbed by seven furious crows. Gulls. Well, I think everybody saw the first-cycle Great Black-backed Gull present for most of the afternoon. Also, the second-cycle Iceland Gull showed up by mid-afternoon, and most got great looks at it. (I'd say the bird is mostly, maybe even entirely, an Iceland Gull. Go ahead, count it!) I was aware of at least four Thayer's Gulls (two adults, two first-cycles) and at least four Lesser Black-backed Gulls (one adult, three first-cycles), and there may well have been more. I was aware of only two California Gulls, about typical for the dead of winter at Valmont. We had 55 Herring Gulls, if anything, a low count, and we saw at least 7,500 Ring-billed Gulls, nearly all of them converging in an immense swirling white mass above Leggett Reservoir right after sundown. Oh, and, of course, the one that got away. I'm reasonably certain I saw an adult Mew Gull (one has been present off and on at Valmont for several weeks), but couldn't get other birders on the bird, so let's not put it on the list--and let's also continue to be on the lookout for the bird. (No sign of the previously reported adult Glaucous Gull, first-cycle Glaucous-winged Gull, or first-cycle Mew Gull; that's 10 species of gulls at Valmont since Christmas, if you're keeping count.) (Belted Kingfisher. Whoever showed Hannah the male in the scope, thanks. She hasn't stopped talking about it.) Great Horned Owl. The resident pair was seen and heard by many on the way out in the late afternoon. Northern Shrike. One near the plant entrance. The notorious genus Corvus. There was a light but prolonged flight of crows and ravens over the reservoir complex in the mid-afternoon. At least 100 were American Crows. Of more interest were the 9 ravens I saw. Only two were classic Common Ravens. Another was hopelessly indeterminate. And the six others, including one in particular, seemed better for Chihuahuan. But not a one was close enough or vocal enough for positive identification. So we'll call it 2 Commons and 7 spuhs. American Pipit. Two flushing along the edges of Leggett Reservoir. Many thanks to coleaders Chip Clouse, Bill Kaempfer, Bill Schmoker, Marcel Such, and Walter Szeliga for the enjoyable afternoon. Thanks, as well, to the sponsoring organizations: Boulder Bird Club, the American Birding Association, Colorado Field Ornithologists, and Denver Field Ornithologists. And thanks in particular to Xcel Energy and Plant Engineer Dave Madonna for hosting this outing. A good time was had by all. -------------------------------
Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Check out Birding magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BirdingMagazine ------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Powerful Free email with security by Microsoft. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390710/direct/01/
