[cobirds] Boulder Rez in the snow, May 1st

Hello, Birders.

Boulder Reservoir, Boulder County, was predictably very, very birdy this snowy morning, May 1st.

The very first bird I laid eyes on, upon turning into the west entrance, was a Sage Thrasher running across the road. Then I saw a bunch of American Robins fly by, and then a Western Willet, and then an Eastern Bluebird...and, well, things were fast-paced like that for the whole rest of the morning.

There was a great presence of McCown's Longspurs along the main loop road; at least 13, all apparently alternate males, and most or all of them quite vocal, were right along the road near the model airplane field.

Sparrows were everywhere along the road edges. I came up with: 1 Spotted Towhee, 33 Chipping Sparrows, 1 Brewer's Sparrow, 60 Vesper Sparrows, 3 Lark Sparrows, 11 Savannah Sparrows, 1 Grasshopper Sparrow, 1 Song Sparrow, 4 Mountain White-crowned Sparrows, 2 Gambel's White-crowned Sparrows, 1 Slate-colored Junco, 2 Oregon Juncos, 1 Pink-sided Junco, and 1 Gray-headed Junco.

So were American Pipits, about 75 of them, everywhere. And a few Mountain Bluebirds (12). Oh, and American Robins in tremendous abundance (at least 325), and a Townsend's Solitaire.

Shorebirds. The main action was on the north shore, where I saw 15 Marbled Godwits, 2 Long-billed Curlews, 28 Western Willets, 4 beautiful and vocal alternate Long-billed Dowitchers, and Peter Burke. Other shorebirds scattered around the lake shore were Killdeer, Greater and Lesser yellowlegs, a peep, a Wilson's Snipe, and Wilson's Phalaropes. At one point I was looking straight on at something that resembled, but wasn't, a thick-banded plover (Wilson's? Common Ringed?), but it was just another ho-hum McCown's Longspur.

Ibi. A big flock on the north shore had one straightforward Glossy Ibis; when I left, it and Peter B. were off to the right of the main flock just a little ways.

Franklin's Gulls and swallows. They were legion.

Warblers. A few Audubon's along the lake shore, and 2 Orange-crowns along roadsides.

The one that got away. I very briefly saw, at quite close range, a nice dull-pumpkin-orange sparrow-like job with faint black marks on the head and a few thin white bars on the brownish wings. But then I was very literally in danger of being steamrolled (there was a work crew out there), and had to get out of the way, and that, as they say, was that. Was it a female Smith's Longspur? Dunno, as I saw it through the windshield for just a few seconds.

Could someone go look for it, please? Pretty please? Last seen in the general vicinity of the McCown's, at the model airplane field.

Ted Floyd

tedfloyd57@hotmail.com

Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado