Re: [cobirds] Chatfield Terns and Godwit, Douglas County

Sorry for being delinquent on posting birds here timely.

As a follow up to Dave's post, I rode down to Chatfield Saturday morning. I stopped on the dam on my way to the sand spit and counted 58 snowy egrets lined up hunting about 630am. 

I arrived at the sand spit (still Douglas county) and had 18 Avocets, a few peeps, and eventually saw 18 or so black terns way to the west. I rode over to a vantage just west of the fisherman's pier area and counted 22 black terns going back and forth from JeffCo to Douglas co. Nice to see them way into JeffCo waters. 

I birded S Platte delta and had one Forster's tern. I got caught off guard by what I assumed were teal but were actually 3 shovelers and 6 pintail. I checked out the 4 assumed western grebes and one was a clark's! 

I decided on a whim to go back to the sand spit and boy oh boy what a good call that was. About 19 black terns were loafing! They are one of my favorites. The avocets still were there. A Marbled Godwit dropped in. Both yellowlegs species made appearances, as did Bairds sand and a semipalmated plover called and dropped in for maybe 30 seconds and was gone. I eventually saw a flock of shorebirds flying around but didn't get a good enough look at them in flight but knew I wasn't sure what they were in poor lighting. There were 12 birds with one smaller than the rest. Then they landed on the water and I realized they were wilsons phalaropes. What was that smaller bird???  

No new birds for the green big year, but all round quality. It was a really great morning. Add to the Curlew I had there early last Saturday morning, pretty good green birding. I didn't find any of my targets but you know I'll try again :)

As I was packing up, a rock wren came up to the edge of the path and walked over to me. It hopped on my bike. I was 2' from it. I got photos of it on my bike. Ha! Cheeky little birds. Good big year blog material! 

It's going to be a busy bike riding couple months! I need a massage and nap 😂

I think a couple big sits at the sand spit may be warranted this fall. I can't wait!! 

Good green birding!

Cheers,

Scott Somershoe 

Littleton CO

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 22, 2021, at 2:59 PM, Dave Cameron <davednvr7@msn.com> wrote:

The sandspit at the South Marina at Chatfield today around 1pm had

11 Black Terns

6 Common Terns

1 Forster's Tern

1 Marbled Godwit

2 California Gulls

~150 Ring-billed Gulls

Many Pelicans, maybe a dozen DC Cormorants.

So our shorebird search yielded 1 shorebird, but it was a good one.  Earlier today at Cherry Creek in Aurora (Arapaho County), we got a total of 4-- 2 Solitary and 2 Spotted Sandpipers.  Also many Pelicans, many Snowy Egrets, Ring bills, and other obvious suspects.

Dave Cameron

Denver

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