Birding In Adams County

November 10, 2018

Richard Stevens:

The calm before the storm, it was a beautiful day until late afternoon.  High temperature was 56 degrees around 2:00pm.  Winds were 6-7 mph.  At 4:00pm a storm blew in from the east northeast.  Temperatures dropped rapidly and anomometer readings soared to 24 mph.

Rebecca wanted to see a Harris's Sparrow so we walked the First Creek Trail at Buckley Road.  The previously seen Harris's Sparrow did not show; however, one White-throated Sparrow did.  Again, the bird was with a dozen White-crowned Sparrows, three Song Sparrows and a Lincoln's Sparrow on or just south of the chain link fence southwest of the trailhead.

Missing the Harris's Sparrow, we headed to Bluff Lake Nature Area (Denver).  This Harris's Sparrow was cooperative to a point.  It appeared several times as it scurried across the gravel trails behind (north) the maintenance building.

Our next choice was either Cherry Creek Reservoir, which we have visited several times this month or something new.  Our choice was to hike the South Platte Birding Area (Adams) from 88th avenue to hwy 224 and back.

It turned out to be a first-rate selection. 

We scoped the northern West Gravel Lake from the road running east to west along the north side of the lake.

First, a female Long-tailed Duck was spotted about 50 yards to the south.  I put photos of the adult female in basic plumage on the Colorado Birding Society's Photo Library.  coloradobirdingsociety.net

Next, we noticed a bird that was too big to be a Pied-billed Grebe.  It was too far away to judge the actual size of the lone bird.  It did not look like a Western Grebe, more like a small loon and not a Common Loon.

After watching it swim closer, it was identified as a Red-necked Grebe!

We continued south scoping the Platte River from the trail along the east side of West Gravel Lakes.  Fifteen Common Goldeneyes were at the southern end of the northern lake.  Another six were on the southern West Gravel Lake.

Dropping down to the Platte River trail at the end of the West Gravel Lakes trail we found a male Barrow's Goldeneye with five female/immature Common Goldeneyes.  A dog walker came by and his dog chased the Goldeneyes east to Tani Reservoir.

Later we scoped both East Gravel Lakes and Dahlia Pond, no additional uncommon birds were found.  High winds encouraged us to give up on scoping Tani Reservoir or lakes farther south.

Not a bad afternoon with a predicted snowstorm arriving sometime in the night or later!