Timnath Reservoir Lunch Break and After Work Fossil Creek 2/27

I decided to make another Timnath Reservoir trip on my lunch break as my break was during daylight hours and no wind. I found that it was almost all open water with a lot of birds, most of them on the other side of the lake. I ended up getting all the regular diving ducks and most of the dabbling. The best bird I found on the lake was a LONG-TAILED DUCK on the north side of the reservoir, so to far away to get any photos. The most interesting thing about this bird was that it was the 6th Long-tailed Duck I have seen this month and all in Larimer County, I don't even think I have ever seen 6 Long-tailed Ducks in Larimer County in one year. I then drove around to the east side and as I was driving up towards the outlet area I saw a large white bird flying east to west over the road. I quickly get up to where I can see it as it lands. Turns out it is an adult Tundra Swan, although it was quite a ways away. It had a short neck, very little black going up to the eye making it where you could see the eye, and even better was a small yellow spot towards the base of the bill. Luckily I was able to get a photo that is barely identifiable.

                                                      Tundra Swan

I then decided to do a quick drive around the northeast side of the lake and I happened upon a couple of MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS (134) along with a small flock of Horned Larks. I also got a digiscoped shot of one of the birds.

                                                   Mountain Bluebird

Then after I got off work I made a quick stop at Kechter Pit where I saw quite a few birds, but nothing interesting. On my way to Fossil Creek I made another quick stop at Swede Lake (PRIVATE PROPERTY, NO TRESPASSING). I again saw a lot of birds. I was surprised with the large numbers of gulls, which totaled over 500, but interesting enough was all but one of those gulls were Ring-billed Gulls and the one odd ball was an adult THAYER'S GULL. I then met up with Cade Cropper at Fossil Creek. Here was also a ton of birds, including most of the diving ducks and a lot of dabbling ducks. The best birds we saw were 3 Red-breasted Mergansers, several Horned Grebes, and 1 Pied-billed Grebe, but I saw all of those species the last time I was there, which was when I found the Long-tailed Duck.