Monday, March 9, 2009

South Platte River at 88th Avenue, Adams County

March 9, 2009

Richard Stevens:

Gary Weston and I arrived at Memorial Park in Arvada about an hour before sunrise. We walked around for two hours searching for the possible Northern Saw-whet Owl reported yesterday. Our search went from Memorial Park to North Jeffco Park to the west.

We did not find any small owls but the trip was not a total lost. An Eastern Screech-Owl popped its head out of a hole in the large cottonwoods at the east end!

Temperatures started to warm up and we decided to hike the South Platte River at 88th avenue in search of sparrows. Sparrows were quite rare. We found a couple of Song Sparrows east of the parking area.

The greatest number of sparrows was found while we detoured along Clear Creek to York Street and back. Harris's Sparrows have been found here on several occasions in the past, but not today. Our sparrow count was 9 Field, 2 Song, and 5 White-crowned.

Quite a few ducks are still "wintering" along the S. Platte. Northern Pintail Ducks and Northern Shoveler were in high numbers. The pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes was again observed on the River below the green/white tower.

The Barrow's Goldeneyes eventually flew to the southern West Gravel Lake where they joined 3 Herring Gulls and an adult California Gull. A Loggerhead Shrike was at the Engineers Lake south of the confluence of the S. Platte and Clear Creek.

About 140 Ring-billed Gulls were at the south end of Tani Reservoir. Winds had picked up and were blowing toward this end. We assume that brought more food possibilities here or the gulls just did not want to fly northward in the stiff winds?

After taking Gary home, I drove through Barr Lake. Things were pretty slow there; winds had gotten quite strong and the high waves made counting waterfowl difficult.

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