The Prewitt gull-fest continues. Mark Peterson sent me pics of a large dark gull that he saw at Prewitt on Sunday. Today, Nick Moore and I went out to Prewitt in search of this gull and whatever other gulls might be found. At the pond along CO-6, but WCR R, there was a flock of gulls. We stopped to look and the first bird in my scope was an adult WESTERN GULL in high alternate plumage: the same bird Mark had photographed, but we had the advantage of have the bird at close range. The bill was a brilliant yellow, verging on orange, with a super-bright red gonydeal spot. The eyering was bright yellow. The eye darkish, but not truly dark, as in a California Gull, but more amber or muddy colored. The tibia were yellow-pink, the "knee" and the toes/webbing were brilliant pink. The bird was fairly dark, and may well be of the southern wymani race. It flew off after 5-10 minutes, and we did not see it again. Note that this is a different bird than the 3rd year bird I found at Prewitt a week or so ago.
Also at the pond were 3 adult and 2 immature LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, a 1st cycle GLAUCOUS GULL, and 6 THAYER'S GULLS among 60 or so Herring Gulls.
At the reservoir itself, water levels are up by a couple feet from last week, and thus most of the dead fish are no longer accessible to the gulls, and the gulls were far more dispersed. We could probably ID only about 10% of the gulls that we could see upon the reservoir, and there were likely many more birds than we could see. Nonetheless, we saw 3 more adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS, an adult and immature GLAUCOUS GULL, 4 more THAYER'S GULLS, a 3rd year ICELAND GULL (photographed; wingtip pattern similar to "k" in the plate in Howell and Dunn's "Gull Book"), and an adult and 1st year HERRING x GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL HYBRID.
Mark had >10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls here on Sunday, split about evenly between adults and immatures.
The place is mind-boggling, though that may be coming to an end with the higher water levels.
Other goodies from today include an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED and THAYER'S GULL at the N. Weld County Dump, viewed from busy Highway 14, west of Ault, and the continuing Trumpeter Swan at Duck Pond, near Fossil Creek Reservoir.
BYO Playa still has a small amount of water, but nothing shorebird-wise beyond a few Killdeer and a snipe. However, we did have 1100+ McCown's Longspurs and a handful off CC Longspurs, plus at least one Lapland there. Pretty stunning.
Good Birding
Steve Mlodinow
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