Birds at Baseline Reservoir

[Jeff Parks]

Hi all -

I went out to Baseline Reservoir outside of Boulder this morning to see if the Sabine's Gull was still hanging around, and to see what else was out there as well.  The gull was still hanging around the north end of the reservoir, moving around from time to time.  There was a Common Loon as well, reported a couple of days ago, it was on the southeast part of the reservoir diving for food.  While I was on Cherryvale watching the loon, I saw Sabine's Gull  down on the south end for a short time, but decided to head back to a safer spot when an Osprey started circling above it.  I was watching the Osprey to see if it would dive for a fish, and when I went to look at the gull again, it had disappeared, presumably back to the north end of the reservoir. 

While I was on the north end watching the gull, there was a fairly good sized flock of White-Tailed Swifts flying around over the north end of the reservoir and the hillside above that.  Ted Floyd was there for a short time as well, and he thought they had come from the northwest and were moving to the southeast.  It was kink of unusual to see such a large flock of swifts out this far from the mountains, but we enjoyed watching them anyway. 

There were a few other birds of interest, some Common Mergansers and a handful of Western Grebes as well as some Northern Shovelers and a raft of coot.

Good Birding -

Jeff Parks
Boulder, CO

[Jeff Parks]

White Throated Swifts, duh ...
JP