Monday, December 9, 2019

Return to Aurora Reservoir Under Better Weather Conditons

December 6, 2019

Richard Stevens:

High temperature reached 42 degrees.  Winds were 9-10 mph.

I returned to Aurora Reservoir today hoping for better visibility.  

The swim beach was scoped from the Lower Parking Area.  A Lesser Black-backed Gull and Glaucous Gull were among 1500 gulls on the swim beach.  At least one Herring Gull and two California Gulls were also there.

Four additional groups of 1000+ gulls were scattered along the shore (mile 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 2.5).  After an hour, the gulls on the swim beach were dispersed by human activity.

I hiked up from the Western Parking Area to the west side of the dam.  My target bird, the Yellow-billed Loon was also not found from here.  In fact, few birds were at the northwestern corner of the dam today.

It was such a beautiful day, warm and calm winds, that I decided to hike down to the Lake from the south side.  It is approximately a 1.5 hike one way to the shore.  Yet another group of 1000+ gulls was on the shore in Lone Tree Cove.  

This group included most likely the same Glaucous Gull previously found, two Lesser Black-backed Gulls and at least one Mew Gull.  Another scope of the Lake from the mouth of nearby Senac Cove did not find the Yellow-billed Loon.

To continue enjoying the excellence day I walked the length of the nearby northern Pronghorn Open Space trail.  It is about 1.2 miles one way to the northern border.

Song Sparrows were the only species found in the long cattail fields today.  No Short-eared Owls appeared at sunset as I hiked back to my car.

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