Sunday, January 24, 2016

Visiting a Few Reservoir Around Denver

January 23, 2016

After receiving a text message about an Iceland Gull at South Platte Park Reservoir (Arapahoe/Jefferson) I headed down that way.  Temperatures were in the mid 50s, anemometer readings around 10 mph.

A small group of gulls was on the ice shelf off the dam.  I could pick out two Thayer's Gulls, none of which I could call an Iceland Gull.  NOTE: later Nick Komar retracted the Iceland Gull report.  The two Lesser Black-backed Gulls reported by Nick were not around in the early afternoon.

The three Long-tailed Ducks were swimming quite far away in the larger open water.

I counted 14 Greater Scaup on Eagleview Lake South Platte Park (below the eastern side of South Platte Park Reservoir).

When I passed through Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe), about 300 gulls stood on the ice shelf off the swim beach area.  Again, I picked out two Thayer's Gulls as the only two uncommon gulls.  Ring-billed, Herring and California Gulls were in the mix.

The last two hours before sunset were spent with Bill Cryder at Aurora Reservoir (Arapahoe).  We walked down from the south side to mile 2.5.  Uncommon gulls two Thayer's Gulls and a Lesser Black-backed Gull were among 800 gulls.

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