Thursday, February 18, 2016

Search for Gulls in Arapahoe County

February 18, 2016

Richard Stevens:

What another fantastic winter day.  Temperatures set a new record at 73 degrees.  While winds were calm before noon, anemometer readings achieved 22 mph, gusts to 38 mph in the afternoon.

I went exploring for gulls to test my new scope.  Would not you know it; gulls were scarce.

Only a hundred or so were dispersed around Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe).  I did see a beautiful adult Thayer's Gull off the southwest boat ramp.  My old Nikon scope would not have been powerful enough to allow for identifying looks.

Less than two dozen Ring-billed Gull stood on the ice at Quincy Reservoir (Arapahoe).  No other species were in the group.

Less than one hundred gulls were scattered around Aurora Reservoir (Arapahoe).  Again, I was able to pick out an adult Thayer's Gull as the only uncommon Gull among them.

No Short-eared Owls appeared along the DIA Owl Loop (Adams/Denver) on the drive home.  The Burrowing Owl was again at the southwest corner of Trussville Street & 114th Avenue!

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