Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Arapahoe County (The rest of my long day of birding)

September 21, 2010

Richard Stevens:

The rest of my exciting long day of birding on Tuesday:

The rest of my day was not quite as exciting but still enjoyable. I drove through Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe) and scoped the lake from several areas. The adult Lesser Black-backed Gull and a Sabine's Gull were swimming in the middle of the lake (viewed from the north end of the Lake Loop).

I walked the Lake Loop over to the Mountain Loop and back. A Hermit Thrush was deep in the thickets west of the Lake Loop. There was no sign of the Palm Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Black-capped Chickadees seen late last week.

No Green Herons were encountered as I circled the Cottonwood Creek wetlands pond and walked over to the Bellevue wetlands. I also walked from the 12 mile group picnic area to the end of the Beaver Pond. A Virginia Rail called at the south end of the pond.

I searched around the Ranger's Office just to see if any hummingbirds were still lingering around; none was.

Few birds were on the southeast sand spit. A Great Blue Heron walked the spit. Several dozen American White Pelicans swam offshore (an angler was standing on the point).

Few birds moved around the Smoky Hill Group Picnic area. Only a couple of birds were seen in the grove of trees west of the swim beach. However, one was a "good one". A Tennessee Warbler fluttered about!

A steered toward home, but went by Aurora Reservoir on the way. Scoping the lake from the swim beach and the eastern end of the dam found only common gulls and a single Common Loon off in the southeast corner.

A quick bite of food and I timed the trip to pass the Great Plains Park at dusk. My first pass found nothing, but about 10 minutes after sunset, the Burrowing Owl was perched on the fence on the south side of East Jewell Avenue (directly across from the dog park area on the north side of Jewell).

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