Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Birding East of Denver

February 21, 2011

Richard Stevens:

Jacob Washburn, Bill Cryder and I walked into Aurora Reservoir (Arapahoe County) from the south and then circled the 8.7 miles. There were many ducks in the small open water area.

The adult Thayer's Gull was where Jerry Petrosky found it yesterday, below the eastern end of the dam. A couple of Herring Gulls and dozens of Ring-billed Gulls were there also.

A flock of 8+ American Tree Sparrows was in the willows and cattails at mile marker 4.5. A pair of Song Sparrows was in the cattails south of the Visitor's Center.

While hundreds of White-cheeked Geese were out on the ice, we could not pick out any Cackling Geese.

Later, Jacob and I headed over to Barr Lake (Adams). After standing around behind the Visitor's Center for about an hour, the Harris's Sparrow popped to the top of the tall brushes west of the building.

Most ducks and gulls were too far away to identify properly. No dark backed or large white gulls were observed. No Trumpeter Swan today, it was a one day sighting last Wednesday.

Dozens of Great-tailed Grackles were again at the Picadilly Tree Nursery feedlot.

We picked up Rebecca Kosten and Amy Davenport and ended our birding day at Banner Lakes Wildlife Area (Weld). No Long-eared Owls were found. American Robins were the most numerous birds; the count was 178+!

We did hear a Great Horned Owl to the west of pond 11. No Short-eared Owls were observed.

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