Friday, October 16, 2009

Prewitt and Cherry Creek Reservoirs

October 16, 2009

Richard Stevens:

We stopped at Prewitt Reservoir (Logan/Washington) . Highlights included a Sabine's Gull, 3 Black-bellied Plovers and 2 American Golden-Plovers.

Back in Denver, I stopped at Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe) while out getting supplies. What exquisite afternoon weather! After winds this week on the plains of 20+ mph with gusts to 32 mph, the 6 mph wind with gusts to 8 mph was a pleasurable change.

I hoped to find the recently reported Arctic Tern or Pacific Loon but that did not happen. While I was scoping the gulls at the southeast sand spit the adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (Beltz, 10/11) flew in to the north side. It swam around for 15 minutes and then disappeared back west. Also during my hour stay, the Sabine's Gull (Washburn, 10/9) flew into my view. It never landed but flew back west also.

Next I walked to the north end of the road below the southwest end of the dam. I sat there for another hour. Several hundred Western Grebes swam 100 yards off shore. Also observed were Eared Grebes, a couple of Horned Grebes, 2 Pied-billed Grebes and 1 Clark's Grebe. There were 300+ gulls on the swim beach which I did not have time to drive over to and ID. I also saw a grebe that looked suspiciously like a Red-necked Grebe. It was too far away for a definitive ID.

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