Weld to Arapahoe to Jefferson County

December 1, 2019

Richard Stevens:

It warmed up, sort of as high temperature today was 44 degrees.  Winds were 7-8 mph with gusts to 11 mph.

Rebecca and I headed north to Union Reservoir (Weld.  Eventually one Long-tailed Duck was relocated.  We could not find any of the reported Mew Gulls.  Other sightings included a Barrow's Goldeneye and possible Eastern Meadowlark (singing).

Next, Rebecca and I settled on driving to the South Platte Park Reservoir area (Arapahoe/Jefferson).  Only on Sunday is there a chance at not running into heavy traffic in Denver/Littleton.  

The two Long-tailed Ducks found earlier this morning by Adam Vesely were at first in Jefferson County at the western end of the Reservoir.  They swam around much and ended up in Arapahoe County before we departed!  The previously reported Black Scoter stayed at the western side of the Lake in Jefferson County.

We parked near Blackrock Lake and walked between Blackrock and Eaglewatch Lakes.  No swans were at either Lake.  Our target birds were Greater Scaup, which historically spend late, fall and early winter on the two lakes before they freeze.  None was found today.  

A consolation bird was a Surf Scoter on the northwest corner of Eaglewatch Lake.  Most likely, this was the South Platte Park Reservoir duck.  Both scoters seem to disappear for a day or two from the Reservoir.  Perhaps they are flying back and forth between the Reservoir and the two Lakes just below and to the east.

We had no strategy to travel to nearby Chatfield Reservoir (Jefferson/Douglas).  However, because we had observed two of the three species of scoters our next stop was Chatfield Reservoir.  The White-winged Scoter was observed while we scoped the Lake from above the dam.

We then continued northwest to Harriman Lake Park (Jefferson).  The six Tundra Swans stood on the ice at the northwest corner of the Lake.  The yellow spots on their bills were visible on all six birds.  

Thanks Lucy Dealcins for reporting them!  I put photos on the Colorado Birding Society's Photo Library:

coloradobirdingsociety.net 

Our final stop was Addenbrooke Park (Jefferson) where our target bird was a Greater White-fronted Goose.  Regrettably, not one goose was at the Park.  More distressing, I had to spend 35 minutes digging our car out of a snow bank, which used the remained daylight.