Lakes around Larimer County 1/30

I decided to check as many lakes as I could in 4 hours starting at noon. First several stops were pretty uneventful with the Trumpeter Swan not being present at Cattail Pond and nothing but a bunch of 'white-cheeked' Geese at Lake Loveland. There was a flock of 18 Great-tailed Grackles at Bud Mielke Reservoir though. The next stop after Lake Loveland was at Horseshoe Lake and with the information from Cade Cropper there was indeed quite a few gulls present. I was able to see most of them from Knobcone, but I had to go to the north side to get any identifications. Looking through the Ring-billed and Herring I was able to pull out 3 Thayer's Gulls (1 adult, 2 1st winter), 3 Lesser Black-backed (1 adult, 1 3rd year, and 1 1st year), 1 ICELAND GULL (1st year), and 1 GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL (2nd winter).

The next stop was Donath Lake while only a few birds out there I saw 6 Bald Eagles and 1 Greater White-fronted Goose. Fossil Creek was loaded with birds, but the only birds of interest for this time of year was 5 Gadwall. Duck Lake only had raptors around it, but the 3 birds I saw was 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 1 Ferruginous Hawk, and 1 Prairie Falcon.

                                                 Iceland Gull

                                                  Iceland Gull

                                               Lesser Black-backed Gull

                                                Lesser Black-backed Gull

                                              Greater White-fronted Goose

                                                   Northern Shoveler

                                                     Northern Shoveler

I then took the drive up to Wellington and just as I was pulling up to my first stop at North Poudre Reservoir #4 I found a Loggerhead Shrike (120), but it flew a grove of trees before I could get any photos. It's not a species I am worried about missing this year, but it is a very rare bird in the winter in northern Colorado as I have only seen one north of Colorado Springs during the winter. Wellington #3 was still frozen and despite a lot of birds at North Poudre #3 I only found 4 species. The drive from North Poudre #3 to Rawhide Power Plant (Hamilton Reservoir) produced a Golden Eagle and a Ferruginous Hawk. Again there was a lot of birds on on Hamilton Reservoir, but I couldn't find anything new or exciting. I wasn't even able to find any of the grebes or Long-tailed Ducks, but it was pretty windy at this location. The only location that I had wind all day.

                                                            Pronghorn

                                                          Pronghorn

A quick stop at Timnath Reservoir was the same as most of the other spots all day with a lot of birds, but nothing of interest and I still can't seem to find a Barrow's Goldeneye anywhere. 

At 4:00 PM I met up with a Boy Scout Troop to take an hour walk to find birds around the town of Timnath. We ended up with 16 species including a Bald Eagle spooking up a flock of geese. The best birds were 2 Common Grackles (121) that flew up to the top of a tree for a couple minutes. It is a species that is numerous in migration and summer months, but a very uncommon bird in Larimer County during the winter. There are a few around every winter though and you know you just have to be lucky enough to find them.

Overall, it was a good day with some good and not so good photos during the outing. It was nice to get out and see some species I don't get to see very often.

                                                 Eurasian Collared-Dove

                                                  Common Grackle