Tuesday, January 13, 2015

South Platte Park Reservoir to S. Platte Birding Area

January 11, 2015

Richard Stevens:

Today was 20 degrees colder than yesterday.  Temperatures only reached the middle 40s; winds were clocked at 12 mph, gusts to 21 mph.

Rebecca Kosten and I decided to work on our 2015 bird lists with a trip to South Platte Park Reservoir (Arapahoe).  It was one of a few lakes with open water.  The only other known to us was Aurora Reservoir (Arapahoe).

About 5 percent of the reservoir was open water.  A hundred or so gulls stood on the ice shelf along the eastern side of the lake (Arapahoe County side).  These gulls included a Glaucous Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull and Thayer's Gull.

Waterfowl included American Coots, Gadwall, Hooded Merganser and Common Goldeneye.  We could not pick out a Barrow's Goldeneye or Greater Scaup.

We passed 88th Avenue & Colorado Blvd (S. Platte Birding Area) on our trip home.  A Barrow's Goldeneye was found on the Platte River, north of 88th avenue.

Skies were cloudy, winds 12+ mph when we drove the DIA Owl Loop.  Only a few Horned Larks were found, no owls.

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