John Martin Reservoir, 12/31/15
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Duane Nelson
Dec 31, 2015, 5:25:11 PM12/31/15
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Birders,
The deep freeze has frozen all local lakes, but John Martin Reservoir (Bent County) remains mostly open, due to the large volume of water still present following historic floods last spring. I posted following the John Martin Christmas Count that birds were shockingly sparse on the reservoir on December 15th. Cold weather to the north and regionally has finally brought an influx of migrant and wintering birds. The reservoir is teeming with birds, and I'd recommend making it a birding destination before it freezes. I did not visit every part of the reservoir today, or go through every bird, but here's some of what I encountered:
American White Pelican - at least 22 individuals. We missed them on the CBC.
Pacific Loon (1). Still present, can be anywhere on the lake, and very hard to locate. It seems to favor the lake west of the state park boundary (look for the signs at a cattle guard).
Grebes - lots of Pied-billeds, a few Eared, and at least two Western.
Gulls - have arrived en masse. I had one adult Lesser Black-backed and one adult Thayer's from the campground loop north and east of "Point Overlook" among hordes of other gulls. I am sure more species are present. There is an ice shelf in the bay just east of the campground, and some of the gulls roost close to shore on the ice.
Lots of ducks of many species. Finally, the Common Mergansers made it this far south.
A pair of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers is wintering along the river below the dam. I would recommend looking in tall, burned salt cedar (tamarisk) trees, especially near "Mrs. Robert's Pond", which is close to the southwest corner of Lake Hasty.
Duane Nelson
Las Animas, Bent County, CO
The deep freeze has frozen all local lakes, but John Martin Reservoir (Bent County) remains mostly open, due to the large volume of water still present following historic floods last spring. I posted following the John Martin Christmas Count that birds were shockingly sparse on the reservoir on December 15th. Cold weather to the north and regionally has finally brought an influx of migrant and wintering birds. The reservoir is teeming with birds, and I'd recommend making it a birding destination before it freezes. I did not visit every part of the reservoir today, or go through every bird, but here's some of what I encountered:
American White Pelican - at least 22 individuals. We missed them on the CBC.
Pacific Loon (1). Still present, can be anywhere on the lake, and very hard to locate. It seems to favor the lake west of the state park boundary (look for the signs at a cattle guard).
Grebes - lots of Pied-billeds, a few Eared, and at least two Western.
Gulls - have arrived en masse. I had one adult Lesser Black-backed and one adult Thayer's from the campground loop north and east of "Point Overlook" among hordes of other gulls. I am sure more species are present. There is an ice shelf in the bay just east of the campground, and some of the gulls roost close to shore on the ice.
Lots of ducks of many species. Finally, the Common Mergansers made it this far south.
A pair of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers is wintering along the river below the dam. I would recommend looking in tall, burned salt cedar (tamarisk) trees, especially near "Mrs. Robert's Pond", which is close to the southwest corner of Lake Hasty.
Duane Nelson
Las Animas, Bent County, CO
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