White-winged Scoter Aurora Res (Arapahoe Co)

[Dan Stringer]

This morning at 9:30 I saw the previously reported White-winged Scoter at Aurora Reservoir (fee area, Arapahoe Co) between the dam tower and the west wall of the dam. It took me a long time to find it, sorting through lots of very distant dark shapes in overcast conditions with light fog. It's an adult male, a very fine-looking bird.

When I arrived at 8:30 there were very few geese, mostly around the fringes...then, wave upon wave of Canada and Cackling Geese flew in from the north, right over me, to land in open water. I tried to count them, I'm sure that over 8,000 geese came in during the 1 1/2 hours I was there.  It was astonishing and made it a great, noisy morning. One Ross's Goose flew along with a white-cheeked goose V formation very close over my head, and I later saw one Snow Goose in the water.

At noon I visited South Platte Park Res (Jeffco, Douglas) and the lakes east (Douglas) scoping carefully and seeing nothing out of the ordinary. Mid-afternoon at Chatfield Reservoir I saw an adult Thayer's gull standing on the ice near the dam, then drove up to Clement Park (Jeffco) and saw a Greater White-fronted Goose behind a building in the park that's just south of Bowles Ave.

Dan Stringer

Larkspur, CO