Hello, Birders.
Thirty-plus non-shoppers capered yesterday, Friday, Nov. 29, for the third annual Great Boulder Caper, sponsored by the Boulder Bird Club. We enjoyed beautiful weather, fantastic company, and some good birds. It was especially nice to have a sizable and animated contingent from faraway Colorado Springs, plus a number of folks relatively new to birding in the region.
We started out at Cottonwood Marsh, where our very first bird was the long-present Tundra Swan. Next up was a marvelous Prairie Falcon that flew by low over the marsh, then spent the next hour in plain view on several conveniently prominent high lookouts. Next: a poorly glimpsed Marsh Wren, then a beauty that glowed in the sun-kissed cattails. Out at the far west end of Sawhill: An Evening Grosbeak called constantly as it flew over, and several Hooded Mergansers dazzled in the bright sunshine. Back at Cottonwood Marsh, we heard and saw a fine, ruddy, white-throated, adult Swamp Sparrow, plus the day's only Northern Pintail.
Our second stop was McIntosh Lake, where there were at least 2,000 Ring-billed Gulls. Also, an impressive early influx of Herring Gulls; we counted 45 along one ice bar, and there were surely a few dozen scattered elsewhere. Can we call it an even 75? (75's not an even number, but I digress.) More: 5 or so California Gulls, 1 adult Thayer's Gull, and a first-cycle Lesser Black-backed Gull. The Common Goldeneye flock was substantial, with at least 325 and probably many more. Mixed in with them was a drake Barrow's Goldeneye, a typically handsome individual but annoyingly prone to submersion. With all those gulls and ducks, we of course saw the obligate Bald Eagle.
We capered on to Ish Reservoir, which had low water levels and, despite the late date, insects along the shoreline. (Re: insects. We saw many all day long, and Dave Leatherman's name came up repeatedly; the dude's induced a sort of November insect mania among Colorado birders.) Despite several passes through the shorebird (!) flock, alls we could come up with were a bunch of late Killdeer. We saw a distant scaup spuh that looked good for Greater, but we weren't sure. Also a small flock of Horned Larks right along the shore, and three Northern Harriers.
Next, it was down to Jim Hamm Nature Study Area, where we were awed by an ungodly number of Eurasian Collared-Doves. One tree had 91; two other trees had at least that number, it seemed; and others were flying around. (Plus, there were some across the road in Weld County.) We'll call it a very conservative 250. A male Cooper's Hawk was on the premises, and created general Streptopelian mayhem. And our best bird was a beautiful, tardy Say's Phoebe, first spotted in a small tree, but then on a more "natural" habitat: a rooftop. (What IS it with Say's Phoebes and rooftops?)
Down at Panama Reservoir, many grebes were hanging on, among them a nice-post-Thanksgiving gathering of 34 Eared Grebes, mixed in with which was a hulking Red-necked Grebe. The widely scattered Aechmophorus grebes, as far as we could tell, were all Western Grebes. Land birds included our only White-crowned Sparrows (a flock of 5) and Western Meadowlarks (a flock of 9) of the day, plus 1,000+ Red-winged Blackbirds.
We now headed west to Little Gaynor Lake, where the big goose flock harbored three Snow Geese, one Blue Goose, several obvious Cackling Geese, several equally obvious Greater Canadian Honkers, and lots of tweeners. Conditions were perfectly calm here, and it was fun to listen to duck music: Gadwalls quacking their Scandinavian quacks, Northern Shovelers singing "shook-shook" over and over again, and so forth. (Learn more about duck music here: http://blog.aba.org/2012/04/duck-music.html.)
We wound down the caper at the Valmont Reservoir complex, where we reaffirmed two truths: (1) bird from the east side (we did that), and (2) get there well before the sun disappears behind the Flatirons (we didn't do that). Right away, we found a scoter spuh that we called a Surf, but now I'm not so sure of that. I think it might have been a White-winged. Well, a, female-type bird showing absolutely no white in the wing, but it looked big like a White-wing, and its white facial blobs were probably a better match to White-wing than to Surf. Regardless, a cool bird, and maybe somebody will confirm an ID in the days ahead. Meanwhile, the merganser flock was excellent. We had an exact count of 222 Red-breasted Mergansers--and that was before we noticed another monster pod elsewhere; let's call it an even 300, and 300 truly is an even number. Hundreds of Common Mergansers, too, and double digits of Hooded Mergansers. Speaking of double digits, we saw 10 Horned Grebes. Other stuff: the day's second Tundra Swan, about 10 Canvasbacks, hundreds of American Coots, and shockingly few gulls and geese. On the walk out, we listened to the mellow hooting of a female Great Horned Owl, and we looked through our scopes at the dazzling crescent of the planet Venus.
Thanks to the Boulder Bird Club for sponsoring our great caper, and thanks to all the wonderful participants. We'll caper again in 2014!
Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
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