No eiders in Grand County, 11/20

[Nathan Pieplow]

Hi all,

I spent the day checking all the open water in and around Grand County that I could find, in case the King Eiders went that way. I didn't see them.

Shadow Mountain Reservoir -- 99.999% frozen. A couple dozen waterbirds were squeezed into a waterhole the size of a bathtub.

Lake Granby -- Completely open, but fog was a big problem when I arrived at 10:00 AM and didn't completely clear until after 11:00. Once it did, I found more birds than anywhere else today, including 300+ Common Goldeneyes, 34 Barrow's Goldeneyes, 3 species of grebe, and 1 Common Loon.

Windy Gap Reservoir -- no open water.

Williams Fork Reservoir -- Completely open, but water level is fairly low. A fair number of ducks and 2 Common Loons.

Wolford Mountain Reservoir -- Mostly open, but not many birds. This is where almost all the mergansers were, though.

Green Mountain Reservoir (Summit County) -- Completely open, but very few birds.

As far as I can tell, nobody birded the reservoirs in South Park this weekend. That seems like a prime location for the eiders to show up. There's also plenty of Front Range water that doesn't show any recent eBird checklists.

If you've looked for the eiders this weekend, let us know about it. Likewise if you are planning to hit any key spots in the next few days. Might be good to coordinate our efforts a little bit.

Nathan Pieplow

Boulder

[Adam Vesely]

Hi Nathan! I spent most of the day yesterday scoping various reservoirs in Adams County hoping these incredible birds would settle in my home county. I scoped reservoirs that have historically been fruitful for Scoters, Loons, and Grebes along the I-76/Highway 85 corridor, but unfortunately, no Eiders. Oh well, it's always worth the effort!

Adam Vesely

Thornton, CO

[Noah Brinkman]

Hello all,

I went searching for the eiders in Routt County on the off chance they showed up here. I scoped Lake Catamount and Stagecoach Reservoir on the 19th with no luck finding the eiders. Catamount was almost completely frozen, with just a few remaining holes of open water. The birds were dense around these holes, and I spent ~1 hour scoping the three groups of birds. I then travelled to Stagecoach where I scoped the reservoir from several different locations. It was almost completely open with the exception of some ice on the south end. In addition to not finding the eiders, I found no other vagrant sea ducks. Stagecoach is typically a pretty reliable place for scoters.

My checklists for that day will be linked below:

Catamount- https://ebird.org/checklist/S122668090

Stagecoach- https://ebird.org/checklist/S122682563

Hopefully somebody can find these eiders!