Heading up to Ish, I saw a pretty good sized crowd on the water as I drove up. Of course, most of them were Coot on the near end, but there were a couple of Shovelers mixed in, along with some Pied-Billed Grebes. Looking out across the reservoir, there was a pretty good-sized flock of Western Grebes. Counting through the scope, I got to 250 pretty quickly, there were probably a few here and there that I missed. The Coot population today looked to be around 200 - 300, it was hard to count the ones on the far side. I did pick out a couple of Ruddy Ducks at a distance, with their stiff tails and white cheeks.
The highlight of the morning was when an Osprey circled around on the near side of the lake and eventually dove into the water and came up with a fish. While it was climbing above the water, a Bald Eagle came out of somewhere and started harassing it, hoping to take possession of the fish. The osprey circled and dodged, but was not able to get away from the eagle, so it eventually dropped the fish (from quite a ways up). The eagle tried to catch up with the fish, but it splashed back into the lake, and after a couple of small circles over that spot, the eagle flew to the south end and landed on a snag. While it was there, there were three kestrels circling in the trees nearby for a little while, until the eagle decided to find another perch somewhere else.
After lunch, I stopped by McIntosh Reservoir in north Longmont. There were a couple of Pelicans and Great Blue Herons on the SE corner, more Pelicans across the way. Another flock of Western Grebes (45), along with a nice raft of Ruddy Duck (38) hanging out in the middle of the reservoir. Way across on the north side was a flock of what looked like Blue-Wing Teal. I could see the blue/green/white colors on the wings occasionally, with dark bills and a few that had a white patch at the base of the bill. One of the herons came wading down the shore, stopped about 30 yards out from me, and let me take a few pictures.
After that, it was time for a stop at Boulder Reservoir. Again, a bunch of Western Grebes, a few Herons, a few Snowy Egrets, some more Ruddy Duck and a bunch of Gulls. Mixed in with the gulls and standing close to a Pelican was a little gull, much smaller than it's Ring-Billed cousins. There have been a few Franklin's Gulls reported here lately, it looked like it could be one of those. I didn't think it was a Sabine's, but I am not very familiar with either of these two yet. There was a light brown patch on the top of the head, with darker spots on the side of the head, covering the eye. The beak was dark, I thought the legs were dark. I watched it on and off for about 20 minutes, but missed it when it left the spot it was in. Standing very close to the Pelican in the picture attached. Moved around to the south side, saw a little flock of Teal (looked like Blue Wing again) and a Spotted Sandpiper. A kingfisher flew across the bay as an exclamation point, so I decided it was a good time to finish up.
All in all, it was a nice fall tour, the weather was perfect. Lots of Western Grebes, some Ruddy Duck, and a Bald Eagle.
Good Birding -
Jeff Parks
Boulder, CO
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