[cobirds] Pueblo Birding 2/22

CO birders,
5 of us from the CU birding club made the 2.5 hour trek to the Pueblo Reservoir area from Boulder today. We started at the original Valco Ponds parking lot and found the wintering Black Phoebe just west of the lot, and two Marsh Wrens east of the lot. After hiking east, we found all three merganser species on several of the Valco Ponds, as well as 5 Greater Scaup on the third pond. Later that day at the gravel pit pond we had a Long-tailed Duck, the two Dunlin, Ring-billed, California, Herring, Lesser Black-backed, Mew (evening only) and Thayer's (evening only) gulls, as well as all 3 merganser species, Ruddy Ducks, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneyes, Redhead and other common waterfowl. Along the river nearby we located at least 4 White-throated Sparrows in their usual wintering spot, the hybrid Black-capped x Mountain Chickadee, 30+ Yellow-rumped Warblers, and the wintering female Western Tanager (!!) that Brandon Percival first found in January (last seen in the middle of that month).
At the South Shore Marina the Red-throated Loon was putting on a good show close to the tires, although few gulls were present throughout the day with the only notable one being the resident Great Black-backed. The total numbers of grebes, particularly Eared and Horned is much lower than it has been earlier this winter, upon checking a few other spots along the north side of the reservoir. Other birders today also had the Pacific Loon and 3 Common Loons on other parts of the reservoir.

Other special birds seen for Boulder birders included Bewick's Wren, Canyon Towhee, Curve-billed Thrasher, and Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

We considered all this to be a success.


Good birding,
David Tonnessen & the CU birding club
Boulder

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