All,
-- With all of the juicy reports coming from Lake Pueblo and the immediate vicinity, I could no longer ignore the urge to jump in the car and go see for myself. So, I jumped in the car at 345am this morning to make the drive down from Fort Collins. I-25 is almost enjoyable at that time of day. No traffic at all even with the construction. Made it down to the lake in 2 1/2 hours. Not too shabby. 12 degrees when I stepped out of my car at 635am but it warmed up quickly. The breeze picked up on the lake around 10 and started to make viewing difficult. I squeezed every ounce of daylight out of today and logged about 8 miles walking and just short of 500 miles driving. But I stayed in and around the state park and Valco and the Nature Center until about 1pm. If I counted correctly with the other ebird checklist from the same area, roughly West Fisherman road to the Nature Center, 93 species were tallied in that section today which I can't imagine is more than 10 miles long as the crows fly. I saw 83 of them. I find this very impressive for January for such a small stretch of space. I had only ever birded Lake Pueblo previously as my time is always very limited in the area. I see why the river from the dam downstream sees so many good birds. Very awesome area. I was unable to add any new cool species to the area list for the year and my highlights today have already been reported by others in recent days but here they are nonetheless.
South Park Marina
- Canyon Towhee-2
- Red-throated Loon-1
- Pacific Loon-1
- Common Loon-1
- Long-tailed Duck-1
- Scaled Quail-18 (I know these are regular here as with the towhees but we don't have them in Fort Collins)
- Great Black-backed Gull-1
- Lesser Black-backed Gull-3
- Iceland (Thayer's) Gull-2
- Bonaparte's Gull-1
- Dunlin-2 pics on my ebird list
- Ladder-backed Woodpecker-1
- (missed the Curve-billed Thrasher, Doh!)
West Fisherman Road
- Red-necked Grebe-1
Rock Canyon
- Northern Shrike -1
Valco
- Chihuahuan Raven-1
- Eastern Bluebird-8 though I suspect there were more
- Say's Phoebe-1
- Western Tanager-1-still hanging around
- Red-breasted Merganser-2 males
- American Pipit-2
Nothing out of the ordinary at the Nature Center. I dipped on the Harris's and White-throated Sparrow as I needed to head back north. Stopped by Aurora Reservoir (Arapahoe County). Found the Yellow-billed Loon on the north side near the dam hanging out with two Pacific Loons. 4 Loon day! From Aurora I headed over to Lake Arbor thinking I might end the day with a Brant. It was not to be. The bird was out for dinner.
Either way, it was a great day to be out. Though, next time I'm bringing my fly rod to fish part of the time. The guys on the Arkansas were slayin' 'em today. 90 species will probably be a one day record in January for me for a long time.
Notable misses(for me): Belted Kingfisher, Greater Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Canvasback, Bushtit, No Accipiters of any kind, Merlin, Ferruginous, Rough-legged, Golden Eagle, American Crow, Common Raven...Could have been a triple digit day...
Thanks to Brandon Percival for keeping Cobirds informed of all the goodies.
Bird's the word!
Josh Bruening
Fort Collins
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