Weld and Arapahoe County

December 11, 2018

Richard Stevens:

High temperature reached 59 degrees in the afternoon.  Winds were 27-28 mph with gusts 35 mph in Weld County.  At 3:00 pm, winds were calm at Aurora Reservoir (Arapahoe County).

Terry Michaels and I began our birding day at Banner Lakes Wildlife Area (Weld).  The lakes are now ice covered.  We could not find any Swamp Sparrows in the cattails surrounding the northern lakes.  One Long-eared Owl was a nice consolation.

Our plan was to head to Aurora Reservoir when we heard about the Pink-footed Goose 23 miles to the northwest.

We just had to look for the cars near Idaho Creek Wetlands.  Plenty of birders were searching for the goose.  It definite is a Pink-footed Goose.  Unfortunately, the sighting will probably go the way of the three Colorado Bar-headed Geese sightings.  Origin of the bird cannot be determined making calling it a "record" difficult.

In the afternoon, Terry and I hiked the 0.8 mile Southern trail at Pronghorn Nature Area.  We examined both sides of the long cattail marshes at Hayman Gulch.  Senac Creek borders the eastern side of the property.  While not many birds are around now, the newly opened Nature Area has potential in spring and fall migrations.

Thousands of geese flew from nearby Aurora Reservoir to the flat area above the hillside east of Senac Creek.  

We did not have our scopes; however, I could see the prairie dog village where Burrowing Owls were found in the summer of 2002.  This "village" is quite far away from the east side of the Aurora Reservoir dam.  From the Pronghorn South trail, the distance is less than half!  We put it on our list of places to check next spring and summer.

Just before sunset, we walked around East Jewell Avenue and Powhaton Road.  No Eastern Screech-Owls, Barn Owls or Short-eared Owl was found this evening.