CoBirders,
-- I enjoyed a great visit to (mostly) Bent and Otero Counties yesterday, Jan 5. The weather was excellent, 15-47 degrees with very light wind. I was impressed as my total species for the day (and preceding dark) climbed to a nice 108 species, mostly in Bent and Otero. Not bad for January 5.
I left home at o'dark thirty so as to arrive at the dam at John Martin Reservoir by sunrise. This was good planning, as I pulled up to a bit of a spectacle out on the ice as the day began. there was excellent lighting from my vantage at mid-dam, without another human soul in sight. The reservoir was nearly completely frozen, with just 4 small holes of open water, each with a cloud of 1000s of birds. I say "small", but really the scale of the reservoir is so huge, so even a small hole could be like a football field-big and still look small out there.
As I got out of the car there was a great procession of Common Mergansers flying over the lake near the open water holes, maybe 8000-10000 of them in a great stream. Maybe they had spent the night on the ice or sleeping on the water and now many were taking a few laps before resetting to feed. And 1000s were feeding with great intent. Common Merganser was the most abundant bird there, with a conservative 15,000 estimated, but it could have been a good deal more. Gulls were streaming over, leaving the reservoir, many moving down to Hasty and others flying off, but many still out on the big ice. Bald Eagles were scattered all over, with a few more flying in as the sun came up. I counted 98 eagles out standing on the ice (about 20% adults). Thousands of geese were mostly Cackling and Canada, with the other three species also present. Dabblers were nearly all Mallards, with most of those in one big flock of about 2000. Gulls included one Glaucous, 2 Lesser Black-backed and Tharyer's Iceland. Other fun birds for January 5 were 102 Am. White Pelicans, 2 Double-crested Cormorant, 1 Common Loon, and 1 Long-tailed Duck. A pack of 11 coyotes was wandering around near the open water holes, but they were mostly ignored by the birds. I think my eBird list for John Martin busted 11 high count filters.
Lake Hasty was frozen, but had a big gull flock that had Lesser Black-backed and Thayer's. A Northern Shrike here was the first of several for the day, which along with Loggerheads were plentiful. For the day I had 6 Northern Shrikes and 3 Loggerheads!
Other than John Martin's open water holes, the only other water location I visited that had open water was the Valco Pond (Road 22) near Rocky Ford, Otero, and this spot had a good diversity (all 5 geese, many ducks), including Virginia Rail and Marsh Wren.
Other highlights for the long day were: a Field Sparrow at Van's Marsh (Bent), a Common Redpoll at the northwest side of Holbrook Reservoir (Otero), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Fort Lyons (Bent), Harris's Sparrows in Bent and Otero, and Yellow-headed Blackbird at the Lake Meredith feedlot (Crowley). Two other spots that were fun to bird were Timpas Creek SWA south of Rocky Ford in Otero, and the area around the feedlot along Hwy 109at Road Y, just south of La Junta.
I like this eBird list from Road JJ's in Bent for the raptorial quality of its content:
David Suddjian
Ken Caryl Valley
Littleton, CO
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