Over a 27 hour span between 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning I visited Dodd Reservoir three times, all three times there were a few “white” geese present along with several hundred white-cheeked geese.
Saturday morning at 7:00 I stopped at Dodd on my way to the Niwot Park-n-Ride, only a few tenths of a mile away where I was meeting a group for a Boulder County Audubon Society field trip that I was leading with John Vanderpoel. At 7:00 there were 5 white geese on Dodd—four adult Snow Geese and one adult blue phase Snow Goose. While the field trip group was organizing just before 7:30, we could see (at least) one of these Snow Geese fly off with a group of white-cheeked geese to feed.
At the end of the day for our field trip, John and I brought the group back to Dodd—parking in the BCAS parking area at the NW corner of the reservoir. Now there were 3 “white” geese, a typical adult Snow and a typical adult blue-type Snow, plus an juvenile bird that had a wedge shaped head, largish dark-gray bill and very dingy-gray plumage especially on the back. This bird was noticeably smaller than the blue and white adults, but still larger than the Cackling Geese in the vicinity.
This morning there was only one white goose present. It was small, no bigger or even smaller than the Cackling Geese present. Significantly, though, it lacked the dinginess of the juvenile bird from the previous afternoon, but it was resting with its bill covered. At one point, though, all the geese became alert to some threat and raised their head. The one white goose had a small, “punched in” gray bill which for me indicated a juvenile Ross’s Goose—just as Scott describes below.
So, I think the November goose shuffle is upon us—things are coming in and moving around. This weekend there were hundreds of geese at Dodd (which is an incredible goose magnet). By Thanksgiving that will likely be thousands. If you go, pick through them for Greater White-Fronted and Brant and even swans.
Finally, Scott, I’m counting on you for your almost annual Palm Warbler by your work site! Let’s us know. November is warbler month in industrial park Boulder.
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
From: cobirds@googlegroups.com [mailto:cobirds@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Scott Severs
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2013 6:29 PM
To: cobirds@googlegroups.com
Cc: Scott Severs
Subject: [cobirds] Re: Comments on reported Boulder Ross's Goose, Bay-breasted Warbler and update on Larimer LBBGs
Thanks to Nick getting some photo documentation shots of the Ross's-type goose at Dodd Reservoir, I believe there are two in Boulder County. The one I observed yesterday at Fairgrounds Lake (at essentially the same time as Nick was over at Dodd) was a very white individual appearing adult-like until I scoped it, with limited dusky feathers on head and nearly all white on back. It had a darkish line from bill to eye and a small triangular bill. Bird smaller than nearby Cackling Geese, I lean toward a pure Ross's for this bird.
There is definitely something to this aphid thing as all the late warblers in Boulder over the years seem to have an affinity to planted pines in office parks! I have a ton of trees to sort through on my lunch breaks! :)
Scott Severs
Longmont
.
On Sunday, November 10, 2013 12:42:28 PM UTC-7, Nick Komar wrote:
I have posted some photos of the Larimer County Brant, the Boulder County Bay-breasted Warbler and the three Chen geese reported from Longmont, which includes the reported juvenile Ross's Goose, the adult white Snow Goose and the adult "blue" Snow Goose. These are in my recent bird pix gallery at www.pbase.com/quetzal.
Update: I have heard that the 6 Lesser Black-backed Gulls are still loafing in the northwest corner of Horseshoe Lake in northeast Loveland.
Comment on Ross's Goose: The photo is not the best, but the bill shape and head shape do not look right for Ross's Goose. I suspect hybrid Ross's x Snow Goose. Note the lack of a vertical edge to the base of the bill.
Comment on the Bay-breasted Warbler: First, thanks to Alan Contreras for finding it, identifying it and sharing with the birding community. This bird has provided a rare Colorado learning opportunity for solving one of the greatest ID challenges (young Pine vs. Bay-breasted vs. Blackpoll Warblers in fall) as well as for understanding warbler foraging behavior. I have posted some comments on the ID features with my photos. I am thinking that this is a first fall male. Anyone disagree?
Suggestion: Everyone walk outside, find a pine tree with moths and bees flying around it on this warm afternoon (indicating an aphid infestation), and then check the infested pine carefully for a happy warbler. I'll bet there are others out there.
Nick Komar
Fort Collins, CO
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/7781f56e-8179-49e1-b28a-d4d36e4cd015%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
No comments:
Post a Comment