Barr Lake & Cherry Creek Reservoir

September 16, 2019

Richard Stevens:

Temperature was 65 degrees at 7:00 am; it soared to 77 degrees by 10:00 am.  Winds were7-8 mph with gusts to 13 mph by the time I left at 10:00 am.

I returned to Barr Lake (Adams) because of the report of White-rumped Sandpipers on 9/15 & 9/16.  I had been at the same location on 9/15 and captured photos.  On my photos, the dark centers of the Baird's Sandpipers clearly show dark centers.

Today I encountered no sandpipers on the trek between mile 6 (north side of the dam) to mile 5.  Saturday's Lesser Black-backed Gull was not around either.  It may have been on the southern side of the Lake, which I did not visit.

Late in the afternoon, I visited Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe).  One of the juvenile Sabine's Gulls flew around the eastern end.  It started to rain before the second one was located.

Additional interesting birds included 60+ swallows at the Cottonwood Creek Wetlands Pond.  They included two Cliff Swallows, two Violet-green Swallows and many Barn Swallows.

One additional observation: There were half a dozen California Gulls with various degrees of mantle color.  One was rather dark; even so, yet another was as dark as a Lesser Black-backed Gull.  The Gull had dense streaking on nape (not around eye as would be expected on a Lesser Black-backed Gull).  It had yellow legs and black and red on its bill.  This appears to be a bird that has returned for the last six years.  Either a dark mantled California Gull or some type of hybrid, would be my assessment.