January 16, 2009
Richard Stevens:
I enjoyed the beautiful winter day by birding the South Platte River to Green Valley Ranch to Aurora Reservoir.
At first light I scoped the 1st year Glaucous Gull standing on the ice at the northwest corner of the most northeastern East Gravel Lakes. I finally found an authority on the area you told the names of the many lakes. The two lakes on the west side of the Platte River at 88th avenue and Colorado Blvd are West Gravel Lakes. The most southern reservoir on the East side is Tani Reservoir. The other lakes on the east side are all East Gravel Lakes. The large one just south of 88th avenue has East Gravel Lake on its dam's tower.
A walk down the west bike path along the Platte River found several Barrow's Goldeneyes and many species of ducks. Unfortunately for me, a couple of walker scared the ducks up on their walk up river and again down river. As a result, I had to wait 20 minutes or so both times for the ducks to return from West Gravel and East Gravel Lakes.
My goal was to get photos of a yellow/orange billed Goldeneye that has the skull pattern of a Common Goldeneye. Eventually it was captured, but it took over two hours.
While waiting for this duck to return, I also took photos of 3 male and 2 female Barrow's Goldeneyes, dozens of male and female Common Goldeneyes. I also found a 1st year Barrow's Goldeneye and another 1st year Goldeneye that was interesting (ID not determined yet).
Finally the target Goldeneye returned and I did take photos of her also!
I would have stayed longer but a prominent DFO Trip leader came by to look at the ducks. He set his scope up 12 feet in front of me and scared the ducks away. I only mention this because this is the second time he has done this to me. He stepped in front of me while I was photographing a male Black Scoter at Wheat Ridge Greenbelt a few years ago. Next time I will use the guy's name. What do people like this think? Or are they thinking?
I pass Green Valley Ranch Recreation Park and Pond on my way home and decided to walk around the park. Thousands of geese were eating in the baseball field and standing on the ice covered pond.
A Greater White-fronted Goose was at the north end of the pond. This was a juvenile goose and I thought that on my last stop a few days ago, that I had seen an adult? As I photographed the Greater White-fronted Goose hundreds of additional White-cheeked Geese flew onto the pond. With such large numbers they did not seem to be bothered by a birder standing 15 feet from them.
I ran my binoculars over the geese hoping for a Brant; no such luck. I did see an adult Greater White-fronted Goose about 30 feet from me. So, this was probably the adult observed a few days ago.
It was such a fantastic day with calm winds and temperatures in the 60s, that I hated to go home. Instead I went over to Aurora Reservoir to watch the gulls return from their daily trip to DADS (Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site, aka, landfill).
A walk across the mile dam at the north side and 0.8 mile west side down to the swim beach found 14 white geese (including 2 Ross's Geese) and another 2 Greater White-fronted Geese among the 25,000 White-cheeked Geese on the reservoir.
As sunset came and went, hundreds of gulls returned from the landfill. I picked out a couple of Herring Gulls among the many Ring-billed Gulls but no uncommon gulls such as the Lesser Black-backed Gull or Mew Gull.
Richard Stevens:
I enjoyed the beautiful winter day by birding the South Platte River to Green Valley Ranch to Aurora Reservoir.
At first light I scoped the 1st year Glaucous Gull standing on the ice at the northwest corner of the most northeastern East Gravel Lakes. I finally found an authority on the area you told the names of the many lakes. The two lakes on the west side of the Platte River at 88th avenue and Colorado Blvd are West Gravel Lakes. The most southern reservoir on the East side is Tani Reservoir. The other lakes on the east side are all East Gravel Lakes. The large one just south of 88th avenue has East Gravel Lake on its dam's tower.
A walk down the west bike path along the Platte River found several Barrow's Goldeneyes and many species of ducks. Unfortunately for me, a couple of walker scared the ducks up on their walk up river and again down river. As a result, I had to wait 20 minutes or so both times for the ducks to return from West Gravel and East Gravel Lakes.
My goal was to get photos of a yellow/orange billed Goldeneye that has the skull pattern of a Common Goldeneye. Eventually it was captured, but it took over two hours.
While waiting for this duck to return, I also took photos of 3 male and 2 female Barrow's Goldeneyes, dozens of male and female Common Goldeneyes. I also found a 1st year Barrow's Goldeneye and another 1st year Goldeneye that was interesting (ID not determined yet).
Finally the target Goldeneye returned and I did take photos of her also!
I would have stayed longer but a prominent DFO Trip leader came by to look at the ducks. He set his scope up 12 feet in front of me and scared the ducks away. I only mention this because this is the second time he has done this to me. He stepped in front of me while I was photographing a male Black Scoter at Wheat Ridge Greenbelt a few years ago. Next time I will use the guy's name. What do people like this think? Or are they thinking?
I pass Green Valley Ranch Recreation Park and Pond on my way home and decided to walk around the park. Thousands of geese were eating in the baseball field and standing on the ice covered pond.
A Greater White-fronted Goose was at the north end of the pond. This was a juvenile goose and I thought that on my last stop a few days ago, that I had seen an adult? As I photographed the Greater White-fronted Goose hundreds of additional White-cheeked Geese flew onto the pond. With such large numbers they did not seem to be bothered by a birder standing 15 feet from them.
I ran my binoculars over the geese hoping for a Brant; no such luck. I did see an adult Greater White-fronted Goose about 30 feet from me. So, this was probably the adult observed a few days ago.
It was such a fantastic day with calm winds and temperatures in the 60s, that I hated to go home. Instead I went over to Aurora Reservoir to watch the gulls return from their daily trip to DADS (Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site, aka, landfill).
A walk across the mile dam at the north side and 0.8 mile west side down to the swim beach found 14 white geese (including 2 Ross's Geese) and another 2 Greater White-fronted Geese among the 25,000 White-cheeked Geese on the reservoir.
As sunset came and went, hundreds of gulls returned from the landfill. I picked out a couple of Herring Gulls among the many Ring-billed Gulls but no uncommon gulls such as the Lesser Black-backed Gull or Mew Gull.
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