Sunday, October 20, 2019

Return to Arapahoe County

October 18, 2019, Afternoon
Richard Stevens:

High temperature in this afternoon in Denver  was 61 degrees, another enjoyable fall day!  It was a tad windy at 13-14 mph with gusts to 22 mph.

I returned from a trip to Eastern Colorado in the afternoon.  Today was uneventful until I reached Arapahoe County.

Two adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls stood on the Aurora Reservoir swim beach.  I scoped the Lake from the Upper Swim Beach parking area, however found few waterfowl.

A pair of Rusty Blackbirds walked the shore southeast of the handicapped parking area below the office buildings.

Cherry Creek Reservoir also had few non-gulls and Western Grebes on it.  I scoped from the western side of the Lake Loop and found a juvenile Sabine's Gull.  If it had not flown, I may not have picked it out of the dozens of Franklin's Gulls swimming around.

While scoping the Lake from the eastern end of the Lake loop I saw a Pacific Loon.  Later from Pelican Point, I tried to relocate the Loon.  All that was there was a lone Double-crested Cormorant.  I was about to convince myself that it was a Double-crested Cormorant seen from the far distance, when the Pacific Loon surfaced.  The loon stayed above water less than three seconds at a time before diving again.

A walk out onto Pelican Point found the Semipalmated Plover reported by Amanda Spears on Wednesday.  Other shorebirds included two Baird's Sandpipers, two Western Sandpipers, one Least Sandpiper, half a dozen Killdeer and a Lesser Yellowlegs with a damaged foot.

I will put photos of the Semipalmated Plover and Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the CoBus photo library before going to bed.

coloradobirdingsociety.net 

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