Monday, March 26, 2012

Timnath Reservoir and Kechter Pit on 3/25 and 3/26

Yesterday, 3/25, on my lunch break I went back to Timnath Reservoir. As I was pulling up I saw an American White Pelican (148) swimming on the northeast side of reservoir, I eventually saw 4 others flying around. It was a great day to be at Timnath Reservoir as there was no heat waves and very light wind. As I saw 3 Snow Geese mixed in with the thousands of Cackling and Canada Geese. Then just as I finished scanning through all the geese I heard some birds flying over that I knew right away, American Pipit (149). As they slowly flew over I was able to find 10 pipits. Then a few minutes later I heard the most unexpected bird of the day. A singing Green-tailed Towhee (150) sang several times. With getting the towhee I am now half way to my goal for the year. At Timnath I was able to identify 35 species with some of the other interesting being a Virginia Rail, 2 Greater Scaup, 34 Canvasback, 2 Red-breasted Mergansers, and 35 Horned Grebes.
After work I made a quick stop at Kechter Pit. Shortly after I got there a Wilson's Snipe (151) started calling in the cattails. Out of all the birds there I was only able to find one other bird of interest in a Greater Yellowlegs (152).
Just at dusk I made a quick stop at Boedecker Reservoir. I was able to find a flock of 18 Franklin's Gulls and also saw 2 Hooded Mergansers.
Today, 3/26, while standing outside of my house in SW Loveland in the morning I heard a small flock of Sandhill Cranes flying over, unfortunately I couldn't see them. I then met up with Cade Cropper at Timnath Reservoir. On my drive I from my house in Loveland to Timnath Reservoir I counted 17 Red-tailed Hawks, a Ferruginous Hawk, and a Golden Ealge. Just as I had pulled up to the reservoir Hillary Williams got out of her car and came over to join us. I quickly found a pair of Barrow's Goldeneye by the dam. Unfortunately the wind had starting to pick up and quickly became very windy. After careful scanning I was able to find a male Blue-winged Teal (153) in with a small group of Lesser Scaup. Two Cinnamon Teal were in a small pond on the east side of County Line Road by Timnath Reservoir. The only other birds of interest today was 4 Snow Geese, 1 unidentified white goose (my thought was Ross's, but to far away to be sure with the wind), and 9 Double-crested Cormorants.
Then the three of us went back over to Kechter Pit. It was another amazing day at this location. While scanning I found a group of 5 American Avocets (154) and then found 2 more a few minutes later. While scanning the gulls I quickly found a 1st year Lesser Black-backed Gull and a 1st year Thayer's Gull. Then when I got back to the Avocet flock I found a Greater Yellowlegs. Also, when I got to the location that had the 2 Avocets I found another yet another Greater Yellowlegs and standing beside it was a Lesser Yellowlegs (155). On the water we were also able to find all three species of teal (Green-winged, Blue-winged, and Cinnamon). The last stop of the day was a newly made pond on the south side of east Horsetooth Road, it is east of Ziegler Road. There were quite a few gulls mixed in with a large group of Common Mergansers. The most interesting gull was a washed out 1st year Thayer's Gull and a 3rd year (?) Lesser Black-backed Gull.
All in all it has been a great two days with 8 year birds and lots of other exciting birds.
While in Greeley I saw one new Colorado year bird with a Turkey Vulture and 3 Mute Swans, which are non-countable species for Colorado as they are assumed to be released birds.

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