Hello, Birders.
The big snow we were supposed to get Thursday night was something of a dud; but the light dusting we were supposed to get last night turned out to be a doozy. So I went out this snowy Saturday morning, February 1, to see and hear the birds at Waneka Lake and Greenlee Preserve, eastern Boulder County.
For a glorious instant at 6:43 a.m., it was almost perfectly silent: no traffic on Baseline Road, no sounds from the neighborhood, no dogs barking, no wind...just the quiet hiss of falling snow. Then a female Great Horned Owl hooted, followed immediately by a male. There was something achingly pure about the moment. It's hard, in this day and age (or at least at my age!) to give anything your undivided attention. But that's how it was for a brief moment this morning.
The owls quieted down after just a few series, and it was silent again. I might as well have been floating calmly in the depths of outer space. Then a few Horned Larks flew over, tinkling like little bells.
Next there was a great clamor over at Waneka Lake. Maybe a Bald Eagle was coming off a roost? Anyhow, the geese all put up, then put down again. And the gulls were starting to come in. Waneka has had many, many gulls and geese of late. I haven't been paying much attention (that danged, divided-attention thing), but I can tell you that the gulls are onsite by about 8am, and the geese remain until around 10am. So the best time is 8-10am. As I said, I haven't been spending too much time out there, but it's been hard to overlook the handsome adult graellsii Lesser Black-backed Gull visiting the place. (By plumage, it's not the same individual, I believe, as the bird that's been seen over at Boulder Rez.) And I think I saw a white-wing (Glock?) there the other day, but I didn't have bins.
It's a lovely morning. I don't care if you go birding today, but I demand that you go outside and behold the beauty of a snowy morning in Colorado.
Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
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