Aurora Gull Watch? (Arapahoe)

[W. Robert Shade III]

We (DFO trip seven participants) were frustrated trying to ID the many hundreds of gulls at Aurora yesterday. The ice near the buildings on the west side is frozen and the birds now congregate in inaccessible flocks on ice ledges a good half mile to the east. So if the Slaty-backed is still there we missed it. Even with the best scopes and even in the best of light. 

What to do? 1. Wait until the ice melts 2. Stand on the dam and count the birds as they fly out in the morning or return at mid-day or afternoon. They commute to the landfill a few miles north (also inaccessible). Like a hawk watch only a gull watch. They fly low overhead. You can photograph them and identify them later. Unfortunately I am leaving town for a week. So let me know how it worked. 

You will also see: thousands of white-cheeked geese and two species of white geese. On country roads east and north: (raptor cruising) half a dozen Ferruginous Hawks and three or four Rough-legged Hawks. One beautiful dark morph FEHA on a power line tower just east of the reservoir entrance. 

Bob Shade