Not sure if this Pacific Loon is a continuing individual or a new one. Pretty windy up there this morning, and the loon was relatively close (75 yards nw of the Overlook), compared to all the way on the north side below or east of the tall stack like usual. Photo below is poor digiscope but maybe serves as documentation.
Most of the waterfowl, except for grebes, were hugging the west, northwest and north shores. Nothing unusual, no White Pelicans or cormorants that I could make out, and the Bonaparte's Gulls present in good numbers 10 days ago appear to have moved on.
Hamilton Res used to be one of the "Thanksgiving" hotspots in the whole state (back when the word "hotspot" meant something other than what it does in eBird lingo), with all three scoters possible, long-tailed ducks, multiple loon species, mergansers in numbers difficult to estimate. Brandon must throw out better bread crumbs in Pueblo than we do in Larimer. Seriously, I think the fishery at Hamilton has changed over the years, with small food fish being in much smaller numbers. That water is also notorious for high levels of heavy metals traceable to coal used at the Rawhide Power Plant. Mostly unrelated to birds and their food, Dr. Ron Ryder used to tell me when he did weekly bird counts for the overseeing Platte River Power Authority that Hamilton Reservoir hosted, besides schooling shad, the biggest fish in CO: Asian grass carp introduced to graze algal growth. Algae prospers in the warm water turbine discharge and those pig-out carp sometimes exceeded 100 pounds! Not sure if they are still up there or not. I used to see dead ones, resembling albino dolphins, floating along the rocks below the Overlook but haven't seen one in years. Imagine the eyes of a scavenging gull that discovered one of those.
Hamilton Reservoir is also where Dr. Ryder discovered a Gyrfalcon back in 1998. I saw that bird take down a white-cheeked goose back before cacklers were split from Canadas. I suspect that goose was of the smaller species, and it remains the only food item I'm aware of for a Colorado gyr. Hint, hint. Will somebody please confirm the current gyr at the Larimer Landfill is getting gulls, or pigeons, or ravens, or crows, or magpies, or starlings, or rats, or prairie dogs, or ramen noodles, or whatever it is that would be attractive enough to put an individual (or two) of that magnificent species at that site two winters in a row. Reports that simply state it wasn't there, or it's unpredictable, or it was on top of a big power pole and flew off at such and such date and time, mine included, seem mundane for a bird that has to have super interesting behavior.
Douglas Res had very little this morning. Northern Shrike immature flew into the housing development se of the res from just w of 60Rd/15Rd intersection. I did NOT walk to far north end to see whether recent Tundra Swan remains.
North Poudre #4 had very few birds, in contrast to recent weeks.
North Poudre #3 had a good number of geese including a small group of 6-8 "white" geese, with all the waterfowl being packed along the west and north shores.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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