I then continued on with the survey. Just when I was about to get to the stop on the sixth mile I noticed a bird on the road and I hit the brakes. It flew just as it flew calling towards the west. Sure enough, this was a Chestnut-collared Longspur (177). As I was standing outside of my car on this sixth mile I heard another Long-billed Curlew flying around in the fog. Then while driving on mile eight before I got to the stop I slowed to look for anything of interest in a prairie dog colony. There right next to the road on the west side of the road was yet another Long-billed Curlew. After analyzing photos there is no doubt this is a different bird than the first one I saw as this one has a shorter bill. While photographing it I heard another Chestnut-collared Longspur flying around, but I wasn't able to locate it.
At mile 8 the road turns towards the west and the rest of the route is in Larimer County, so I don't have to worry about getting something of interest in Weld County instead of Larimer. At mile nine on County Road 62 I found a flock of feeding blackbirds. While looking through them I found a male Brown-headed Cowbird (178). At the same location I heard a singing Vesper Sparrow.
At mile 14 in the Wellington SWA on CR 3 the pond on the east side of the road is very low and has good mud for shorebirds, but all I could find was Killdeer and Wilson's Snipe.
As I was approaching the stop on mile 15 I noticed a white wing flash from a bird in a small tree. When I got stopped I noticed it was a Northern Mockingbird (179). It was on the northeast side of intersection of CR 3 and CR66.
Although the rest of the 25 mile route was birdy I couldn't find anything else of interest. Some of the better birds were Brewer's Blackbirds, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Great-tailed Grackle, and Ring-necked Pheasant.
My plan from there was to check out several reservoirs in the area and then go looking for the plains species I was still missing which were Mountain Plover, Burrowing Owl, and McCown's Longspur. I had Chestnut-collared Longspur and Northern Mockingbird on that list at the beginning of the day, but already observing them during the route I didn't need to worry.
The only good bird on North Poudre Reservoir #3 was a Tree Swallow flying over. A stop at North Poudre Reservoir #4 I quickly found a Greater Yellowlegs on the near shore. While scanning the reservoir I only found one bird, it was a Common Loon (180) in alternate plummage.
At North Poudre Reservoir #6 the only good bird I found was a Merlin.
Douglas Reservoir was also nearly void of birds, other than 2 Western Grebes. The only bird of interest was a Vesper Sparrow.
On the way towards Rawhide Power Plant / Hamilton Reservoir I found a few locations that looked good for Mountain Plover, but no luck, although I did find a couple more Vesper Sparrows.
Hamilton Reservoir didn't have many birds on it, but it did have a good number of Eared Grebes. I was also able to find 2 American Avocets walking around on the west side. As I was leaving I decided I was going to get a good look at the Buffalo in the field towards the west. As I was getting stopped I saw a fairly large white bird and knew immediately it was a Cattle Egret (181). Shortly after I found it a couple of the Buffalo became curious and starting heading towards the egret, the egret in turn started running away from them, then the Buffalo started to run towards the egret, and the egret decided the safest thing to do was to fly. I watched it as the Cattle Egret flew towards the north and out of sight.
After a quick look at the map I noticed CR 5 went north from Buckeye Road and I decided this might be my best chance for the plains birds without going into Soapstone Ranch. About a mile or so on the road I crossed a cattle guard and noticed some good habitat. I stopped and quickly picked up on a male McCown's Longspur (182). In all I found 7 McCown's in this field. I found a good looking Prairie Dog colony, but was unable to locate any Burrowing Owl or Mountain Plover. In the field on the SW side of CR 5 and CR 92 I found more McCown's Longspurs and there were even a couple of them skylarking. On my drive towards I-25 on CR 92 I heard another Chestnut-collared Longspur flying around.
On my way towards Timnath Reservoir I decided to check several locations. The first was to go back to the Prairie Dog colony and try to get better photos of the Long-billed Curlew. When I got there I quickly realized it was gone.
I made a stop at Cobb Lake on my way south. While driving I noticed a couple peeps along the edge of the reservoir. I got on one and it was a Least Sandpiper (183), but didn't get a good look at the other. I then drove up and turned around to get my scope out and get a better look. While looking at them I realized the other was slightly bigger with black legs instead of yellow of the Least. It had a thicker and straight bill, of which the Least had a thin bill with a slight droop at the end. The second peep was a Semipalmated Sandpiper (184). On the lake there was a lot of Western Grebes with some Horned mixed in. The pond on the north side of Cobb Lake had a lot of dabbling ducks with some diving mixed in, but nothing of note. There were also large numbers of blackbirds including some Yellow-headed Blackbirds and Great-tailed Grackles.
Semipalmated Sandpiper and Least Sandpiper
I also made a quick stop to try to scope out Hinkley Lake, but couldn't find anything from this long distance scan. While I was just about to leave a Cooper's Hawk started circling over me.
The plan from here was to meet up with Cade Cropper at Timnath Reservoir. I arrived to the NE side before Cade. Again I found lots of birds including 4 Canvasback. I then starting looking into the trees and picked up on an Eastern Phoebe, but about 20 seconds later some Red-winged Blackbirds came in and chased it off. This is the 4th Eastern Phoebe I have seen in Larimer County this year and the first I have ever heard of at Timnath Reservoir. A good number of Franklin's and Bonaparte's Gulls continue.
We then went over to Kechter Pit. Here we found a flock of 10 White-faced Ibis (185). There was also 4 American Avocets and a Greater Yellowlegs.
Our next stop was Duck Lake where the Trumpeter Swan is still putting on an appearance. A couple Greater Yellowlegs was still present.
The Loveland area was fairly slow. The areas I went to was Donath Lake, Horseshoe Lake, and the Cattail Pond area. It was a great day though. I managed to observe 10 Larimer County year birds, 8 of which I was able to photograph. I also managed to get over 100 ebird lists for the day.
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