[cobirds] South Denver gull report from Saturday

Yesterday I led a delightful group of 16 birders from ASGD's Master Birder class on a survey of gull viewing locations in south metro Denver. This is what we found:

1. Chatfield Res -frozen. No obvious gull flocks could be seen from the Audubon Society headquarters area, so we decided to skip this location.
2. South Platte Reservoir - A decent flock of gull was on the ice shelf, with several hundred birds. Highlights were an adult lesser black-backed gull (Plus another seen flying away after a Bald Eagle scared off half the flock), two Thayer's Gulls (one adult, one third-cycle), an adult California Gull, about twenty Herring Gulls of various ages, and a candidate immature Kumlien's Iceland Gull (better photos needed). Birds were a bit too far away for great looks, even through high-powered telescopes. Three continuing Long-tailed Ducks were a big bonus here.
3. Cherry Creek State Park ($8 entrance fee) Marina-A small group of 50 gulls gave us closeup views of adult and first-cycle Ring-billed Gulls, two 2nd cycle and three adult Herring Gulls, and a first cycle Thayer's Gull.
4. Cherry Creek State Park Smoky Hill Picnic Area-a break in the ice featured a large flock of common Merganser. A good sized flock of gulls sitting on the ice shelf contained >100 Ring-billed Gulls and five Herring Gulls.
5. Aurora Reservoir ($10 entrance fee). About 100 Ring-billed Gulls and 3 Herring Gulls were viewed at a great distance on the north side.
6. Late in the afternoon a few of us returned to South Platte Reservoir. The gulls were numerous and closer but variety was low- hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls and about 25 Herring Gulls. Eventually as the sun set an adult Thayer's Gull appeared and then a probable 2nd-cycle Nelson's Gull (hybrid Glaucous x Herring). As I was leaving after sundown, the gulls were flying off toward McLellan Reservoir.

Nick Komar
Fort Collins CO

Sent from my iPhone

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