Woods Lake (Weld) gulls

[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

As Steve Mlodinow posted a while back, Woods Lake (2 miles e of Severance on CR74, Weld County) is a whir of activity at present.  As the ice finishes it most recent thaw, gulls are feasting on newly-available gizzard shad and possibly other species of fish.  I was there late this afternoon as the rain and cold came in.  In no way did I survey (just how does one do that without dieing?) the whole lake and wetland area north of CR74, but did manage to see:

Great Black-backed Gull (1a)
Thayer's Gull (at least 2a and 2 first-year)
California Gull (a few)
Ring-billed Gull (hundreds)
Herring Gull (dozens of all ages: great chance to test the theory that all large pink-legged gulls are Herring unless proven otherwise)

Plus:
Mallard (hundreds)
Common Merganser (hundreds)
Northern Pintail (few dozen)
Common Goldeneye (few dozen)

Also saw a long-dead Solitary Sandpiper roadkill in the right-of-way.  Suspect it has been there since last fall.

Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins