White faced ibis at Walden Ponds

[Jeff Parks]

I was at Cottonwood Marsh this afternoon, and had the pleasure of seeing a white-faced ibis.  I first spotted it flying over the north side of the pond, and was hoping that it would come a little closer, and my luck held up!  It landed about 50 yards away right in front of the observation platform.  I was able to clearly see the white feather border between the head and bill, and the bill near the eyes was a reddish color.  Nice green back, reddish/chocolatey breast and belly.  Long grey beak with red eyes.  It stayed around for about ten minutes, long enough for me to realize that I had left my camera home for the day before flying off towards the southwest.  It was worth standing out in the rain for about 15 minutes, asI was just about to go eat lunch in the car.  There was a nice little bunch of avocets farther out in the pond as well, I had six of them in the scope all at once at one point.  For a marginal weather forecast, the birding forecast was pretty good!  this bird was reported there about a week ago, and hopefully it will stick around for a little while.

Good birding -

Jeff Parks
Boulder, CO