I was up at the south end of Horsetooth Res this morning and between 10 & 11am and saw the kittiwake first reported a couple days ago by Nick and Peter. Joe Mammoser and I were parked in a small pulloff (big enough for 4-5 cars) which is on the res side of 23Road about .1-.2 miles south of Spring Canyon Dam (accessed from the east by Harmony/38E which is about 1 mile n of Trilby/Taft intersection where the gyr has been), when Joe spotted the kittiwake flying north along the east shore. During the next hour this bird was pretty much on the wing constantly in this general area, spending more time in the little bay just w of Spring Canyon Dam than anywhere else. Various rafts of gulls sat out in the middle of the res but we never saw the kittiwake land or otherwise associate with these prideless, garbage-eating rift-rafts. Occasionally it would pick small things from the water surface and very rarely briefly landed on the water w of the Spring Canyon Dam. I would say the best way to find this bird would be to just check every solo gull flying rather directly at modest height (25-50 feet) along the east shore of the res both north and south of Spring Canyon Dam (but as Alec reported, it may well go further north but at least while Joe and I watched (and later Sue Riffe), it always seemed to return to the Spring Canyon Dam area. It tends to soar on bowed wings like a little whitish osprey and Joe and I thought its shallow flap was distinctive once you watched it for a while.
Joe and I also heard a Canyon Wren up on the escarpment e of 23Rd at the pullout mentioned above.
As far as I know the Gyrfalcon had not been seen by anybody as of noon.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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