Chatfield Res (Jefferson/Douglas) 12/14

[Mark Miller]

Hi Everyone—

 

I drove down to Chatfield Reservoir this morning 12/14. Snow was falling in wet, heavy flakes, but it wasn’t especially cold. I checked around the swim beach and Massey Draw for loons without success, then went to the picnic area near the dam. There was the loon, in with the coots. It certainly looks like a Yellow-billed, with a completely pale yellow-green bill (no dark at the tip), straight culmen, and brown tones to the plumage. It’s not as steep in the forehead as some I’ve seen, and it has a neck band, which makes me think it might be a winter adult (see the Princeton Guide to the Birds of Europe for a good drawing of one). Over the course of the morning, it went as far south as the swim beach and as far north as the picnic area by the dam, often very far out. I saw no other loons.

 

A male Barrow’s Goldeneye at the picnic area near the dam was a nice surprise. I saw no Red-necked Grebe, but I did see Pied-billed, Horned, Eared, and Western. Very few gulls, nothing rare. At the Riverside Picnic Area near the marina, a Killdeer landed in the parking lot, and the large flock of juncos at the trailhead included a White-winged.

 

Mark Miller

Longmont, CO