October 30, 2019
Richard Stevens:
High temperature today was a cold 18 degrees. Winds were 7-8 mph with gusts to 14 mph.
I hiked the South Platte River from 96th avenue south to Hwy 224 and back (round trip about 9 miles).
Just about every type of common duck in Colorado can be found wintering on the Platte River. Misses included not one Goldeneye duck. The Barrow's Goldeneye(s), which show up every winter, were not found today.
I also scoped Northern & Southern West Gravel Lakes, the northern end of East Gravel Lake, Dahlia Pond, Tani Reservoir and Spat Platte Lake. No uncommon waterfowl were encountered.
There were two highlights. While walking the gravel road that runs east to west from the South Platte Birding Area along the north side of the Northern Gravel Lake I found a flock of eight American Goldfinches, two Pine Siskins and a Common Redpoll.
They were feeding on the Elk Thistle inside the West Gravel Lake fence (south of the road). Eventually they flew to the deciduous trees in the ditch north of the fence.
One Western Grebe swam on the West Gravel Lake.
The other highlight was a White-throated Sparrow loosely associated with a flock of ten White-crowned Sparrows and four Song Sparrows. This flock was in the bushes under the tall willows just downstream of the Light Rail Bridge.
A Wilson's Snipe hiding in a cubbyhole of grasses enticed me to set up my scope to make sure it was not an American Woodcock.
One Spotted Sandpiper, six Killdeer and twelve American Pipits walked along the more swallow rocky areas in the Platte.
American Kestrels were the majority raptor with eleven counted, two Red-tailed Hawks (one a dark morph) and one Prairie Falcon were also observed along the River.
On the way to Barr Lake (Adams), I detoured into the town of Barr. One male Great-tailed Grackle was with hundreds of Red-winged Blackbirds along the main road heading toward the Lake.
At Barr Lake, one Lesser Black-backed Gull stood off the boat ramp area; no loons found this trip.
My birding day ended searching for Horned Larks and such along the DIA Owl Loop (Adams/Denver). Numbers were up today at 450+ birds. No Snow Bunting or longspurs were among them.
Ferruginous Hawks were found at Trussville and 114th avenue and on the fracking material along Piccadilly Road between 128th & 120th avenues.
1 comment:
After looking at photos of the gulls and ducks on Tani Reservoir, I found that one male Barrow's Goldeneye was present!
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