Sunday, November 8, 2009

Marston Reservoir in Denver County

November 5, 2009

Richard Stevens:

Rebecca Kosten and I decided to checkout the "mystery loon" at Marston Reservoir (Denver County). We scoped the reservoir from the west side near the closed "bird sanctuary". At 1:30 pm, this angle is better because of the southern setting sun.

We got fair looks at a loon quite far off in the distance. The loon had a "blocky" head and showed much white on its side. When I looked at digiscoped photos later, the head looked too "blocky" to be an Arctic Loon. Also measuring the size (length) of the loon compared to a Common Loon at a similar distance from my scope, they appeared to be similar (not smaller as would be expected with an Arctic Loon).

I set my scope up again at the small park/runoff area at the northwest corner of Marston Reservoir. Another 2 Common Loons were far out in the lake. Two large white sleeping birds "woke up" a couple of times. They turned out to be Tundra Swans.

The large number of gulls at the northwest mudflats was mostly Ring-billed Gulls with a few California Gulls in the mix.

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