Hi Everyone,
Today 3/22, I went to the Sprat Platte Fishing Area in Thornton (cross streets McKay and E 100th), the Elaine Valente Open Space (104th east of McKay), and the City of Thornton ponds in between, all in Adams County. The gulls at Sprat Platte included Ring-billed, California, a single Iceland (Thayer’s), a single adult Lesser Black-backed, and a single adult Mew. Below is a digiscoped photo of the Mew Gull amid some Ring-billed Gulls. I have cropped it, but otherwise I haven’t edited it. The thin, unmarked bill and large white spots on the outer primaries are visible.
From the corner of E 100th and McKay, I scoped the pond to the east. I counted 9 Double-crested Cormorants. Elaine Valente Open Space had a few more cormorants, all Double-crested. From Elaine Valente Open Space, I walked the trail along the South Platte to get a view of the ponds south of 104th. The more northerly pond had the continuing Red-throated Loon. The more southerly pond, the same pond as the one I scoped earlier, had a Red-breasted Merganser and cormorants I couldn’t see from the west side, a total of 15. One of the cormorants looked small, but since tail and neck proportions weren’t really assessable from this distance, I did not try to identify it. This individual was not visible from McKay and 100th, and too far away even to digiscope.
Mark Miller
Longmont, CO
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