RE: [cobirds] SE Colorado Yesterday

Congrats to you Mr Steve, great article. 

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone

-------- Original message --------
From: 'Steven Mlodinow' via Colorado Birds <cobirds@googlegroups.com>
Date:03/06/2015 7:10 AM (GMT-07:00)
To: cobirds@googlegroups.com
Subject: [cobirds] SE Colorado Yesterday

Greetings All

Yesterday, Nick Moore and I birded from Negronda/Neesopah (Kiowa) to John Martin (Bent) to Henry/Holbrook (Crowley/Otero)

Negronda, Neesopah, Jett Reservoirs all were mostly frozen, but were packed with birds in the small areas of open water. Nothing of interest though beyond a few migrating McCown's and CC Longspurs (mostly McCown's) and a modestly late N Shrike

John Martin had fewer birds than normal (about 10% of the 6000 Common Mergs and 5000 Redhead I had last year on nearly the same date). It did, however, still have many gulls, and many Herring Gulls. Among the Herrings we found 3 THAYER'S GULLS (2 adults, 1 first-year) and a stunning adult GLAUCOUS X HERRING GULL, which looked like a giant Thiceland (Thiceland being a bird that looks intermediate between Thayer's and Iceland), dwarfing the nearby Herring Gulls and having a rather pale frosty back and wings. The one bird present in much higher numbers, all day, were N Pintail, with thousands at John Martin. Landbirds were nearly absent, but there was another latish N Shrikie

The Las Animas Fish Hatchery and the SWA just south thereof (Bent County) were fabulous with thousands of relatively approachable Snow and Ross's Geese, including many lovely Blues (and one SNOW x ROSS'S GOOSE). There were also a couple Cinnamon Teal and  a nice scattering of other ducks. The wooded areas around the fish hatchery had > 200 WC Sparrows, a WHITE-WINGED JUNCO (rarish in se. CO), and a SWAMP SPARROW. 

Cheraw was pretty birdless

Holbrook was stuffed full of birds, including a GREATER YELLOWLEGS and a pallid second year THAYER'S GULL. 

Meredith remains, for reasons unknown, inaccessible

Henry was mostly frozen, with a modest number of birds in the far back portion of the lake.

Good Birding

Steve Mlodinow

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