All,
I finally got to spend extended quality time birding Timnath Reservoir today to follow up on my last post about the spot. I birded there for 4 1/2 hours from late morning today to late afternoon and felt like I covered it pretty well. First off, what an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside! Mild temps and zero wind. The water was like glass. I first worked the west end dam from north to south and back scoping through the geese and mergansers hoping to find some variety. 8 Bald Eagles kept the birds alert and moving throughout the afternoon. After the Eagles moved all of the geese onto the water, I was able to carefully scrutinize the flock that still numbers around 5000 birds. The expected 5 species of geese were present. Cacklers were the most numerous to the surprise of no one. Canada, Greater White-fronted (9), Snows (6), and a lone Ross's Goose rounded out the rest. One dark juvenile Snow Goose had me going for a moment thinking it was a Brant. There were 6 hybrids in the mix. 5 of them were all Snows (bill size and grin patches) crossed with either Cacklers or Canadas from what I could tell. There is one hybrid there that to me was a complete head-scratcher. Looked like it had Canada or Cackler genes but I couldn't tell if it was mixed with a Greater White-fronted cross or even Greylag. It seemed larger than a GWF would be and on land the legs looked more yellow than orange. I think this may be the same bird that Cole W saw earlier in the week but it was some sort of funky looking. Very cool! The goose sp. option in Ebird works well for people like me who don't know much about goose hybridization.
There were still oodles of Common Mergs. Also still, very little variety of ducks in general. Nothing rare in duck land. 1000+ gulls remain. Same mix save for an adult Mew Gull which was the best bird of the day. I found the Mew Gull in the NE corner of the res after walking across the north dam and working the mudflats viewing the swim beach from the west on the mudflats in the middle of the res.
Checklist w/ Mew Gull photo link here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S61685855
Bird is the word!
Josh Bruening
Fort Collins
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