Backside of a Storm

Tuesday I headed down to Cherry Creek Reservoir. A Neotropic Cormorant has been around, along with all kinds of migrants, and I thought I would pay a visit to see what I could find. Initially I thought I was on the young Neotropic Corm, but it turned out to just be a juvenile Double-crested Cormorant instead.


That was not to say that I regretted the trip. I had several good year birds, including this Black-crowned Night Heron among others. This was an early shot, as the storm was brewing overhead. I wandered around the marina to the edge of the dam, when the sun finally dropped below the clouds and stared reflecting. I hustled back to the fishing pier, and was treated to a great sight as the storm moved west.


A full double rainbow was huge before me, and the lower bow was repeated on itself at least three times. It was so perfectly aligned that it seemed as if I was looking through a tunnel into the distance. Of course a telephoto isn't a tool for that job, so the gull flyby will have to do.


Cherry Creek was full of Western Grebes. I guessed two hundred, but that may have been low. They were everywhere, and even with all that variety I couldn't find a single Clark's among them.


I headed back down last night, similar weather, and still no Neotropic. Lots more pictures to get through, and aspirations fro the weekend, so we'll see what happens and when they get posted.

2011 Count: 90
Lifetime: 252

Cherry Creek Reservoir Rarities

Yesterday morning I headed down to Cherry Creek to try to re-locate the reported Iceland Gull that had been hanging about in the area. As myself and several other birders were setting up scopes and scanning the gulls lining a sand spit this Say's Phoebe popped up just further along the shore.

This winter rarity posed just long enough for me to get a couple of shots using the digiscoping rig - giving me some hope that I may be able to figure out camera settings and get reliable shots at some point in the future. That bird, which has apparently been in the area as well, was close and cooperative.

Our main target, and my first ever Iceland Gull, was not nearly as close or stationary. These were the best of a series of very rough images. I did get great looks at the bird through other scopes that still had their standard eyepieces on, enough so to clearly identify this bird. Clearly though the digiscoping still needs a lot of practice.

Another great gull courtesy of Cherry Creek Reservoir, I hope more continue to show up this winter. The count update below reflects two new adds, the Iceland Gull, and another bird from last weekend that I still need to get posted....stay tuned.

2010 Count: 210
Lifetime: 251

Weekend Waterfowl

The end of last week saw major priorities in life shift dramatically. I guess the priorities don't shift, but the values you place on the lives of friends and family make for unexpected activities. We all have times when our human bonds have to come first, so my time out doors was limited.

I did get a chance to make the most of my limited time by heading to South Platte Park on Saturday morning. My only previous visit was last year's Christmas Bird Count. That was a great day where I totaled over 40 species with the help of fellow birders.

On Saturday I tallied 23 in two hours, not bad, but something I definitely would not have been able to do a year ago. The juvenile Wood Duck at the top of this entry is one of my favorites. The distinctive white facial pattern is visible in traces, but has not yet emerged. The orange eye-ring is a giveaway though.

The others, Mallards, Northern Shovelers, and American Wigeons were all present in far greater numbers. They were also joined by Pied-billed Grebes, American Coots, Ring-necked Ducks, and Redhead Ducks.

Granted, the Great Blue Heron above is not technically waterfowl, but walking under an arching cat-tail it just begged to be photographed - and I complied.