[cobirds] more southeast CO (Kiowa and Baca Counties)

It seems to be all or nothing with rainfall in southeast Colorado.  In contrast to previous trips to the region this year, the current one provided lush green vegetation and water everywhere.

I got a late start on Saturday (Aug 10), arriving in the early evening at Neegronda Reservoir in Kiowa County.  The highlight was a real surprise -- apparently a GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL.  OK, I realize there's always some uncertainty in gull ID, but the field marks were pretty good.  To my untrained eye, it looked like a second or third year gull, to be determined after viewing some photos in Howell and Dunn and online.  It was the only large gull among the 150+ Franklin's gulls and couple dozen ring-billed gulls.

Most of the shorebirds reported recently at Neegronda have left, but some SNOWY PLOVERS (5 at least) remain.  Note that the southeast part of the lake, which tends to be the birdiest, now has a wall of dense vegetation around it.  If you visit the area, hopefully you can find a much better route through it than I did.

My Sunday morning started like Mark Miller's -- arriving at Two Buttes finding it essentially in flood.  I did walk down below the dam, finding the road washed out in a couple of spots and some debris (tree branches, etc.) in the ponds.  Water was plentiful, birds were not.

The rest of my Sunday was mostly an unsuccessful search for scissor-tailed flycatchers and greater roadrunners, but there was beautiful scenery to be enjoyed anyway.  Perhaps the most interesting bird was an olive-sided flycatcher at Burchfield SWA (Baca County).

David Dowell

Longmont, CO

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