I led a field trip to Loveland lakes in Larimer County today, for Fort Collins Audubon Society. It snowed most of the day, and temperatures were frigid, so viewing conditions were suboptimal. Nonetheless, 9 of us tallied almost 60 species. In spite of plenty of open water, waterfowl numbers were low at most locales, with a few exceptions:
1. Ryan's Gulch reservoir had a small area of open water with a large diversity of waterfowl, including 3 Western Grebes and at least two Greater Scaup. A Prairie Falcon buzzed the congregation while we watched.
2. Silver Lake (east of the Loveland Cemetery) had a Wood Duck, 15 Red-breasted Mergansers and another pair of Greater Scaup.
3. Boedecker Lake had a Common Loon, 4 Bonaparte's Gulls and a flyby bluebird species (probably Eastern)
4. Horseshoe Reservoir had an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull among hundreds of gulls (Ring-billed, California and Herring)
5. Horseshoe Lake-North had one or two mostly pure male Mexican Mallards (among hundreds of Mallards)
6. Boyd Lake had a Killdeer, about a thousand gulls (swim beach) plus 6 Bonaparte's Gulls and 3 species of grebes (marina) but nothing rare
7. Lake Loveland hosted thousands of geese overnight (mostly Richardson's Cackling Goose), and at least one adult Lesser Black-backed Gull joined other gulls at the end of the day in the northwest corner.
Rist Benson Lake, Lon Hagler Reservoir, Lonetree Reservoir, Bud Mielke Reservoir and Cattail Pond were almost bird-less. We did not check Equalizer Lake, Carter Lake, Dry Gulch Reservoir, Welch Reservoir or Loveland Reservoir.
Nick Komar
Fort Collins CO
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