A snowy owl, denizen of the Arctic, found its way to Westminster. That would be a bird worth going to find. Snowies don’t wander into Colorado every winter; so when they do, traveling to find it, see it and watch it are well worth the time and effort.
Eh. Eh, heh.
A yellow-billed loon has been swimming the waters outside Aurora for awhile. It, too, would be worth a trip.
Only five species constitute the entire loon family. All five have been found in Colorado, but the arctic loon has been credibly verified only twice, maybe another time or two I haven’t heard about.
Eh-heh, eh-heh, eh-hum.
The yellow-billed is the second rarest loon found here. They, too, nest in the Arctic; most of them winter at sea. They gather in groups of several hundred to more than 1,000 along the coasts of Alaska and British Columbia. As you progress southward to California, the groups diminish in number and in size.
Only the occasional lone yellow-billed loon spends a winter in Colorado, so a trip to see this one would be a special treat.
Aah-hooh, heh. Sniff.
Some scoters seem to be overwintering on several reservoirs. Three of the world’s four scoters occur in North America. They, too, nest in the far north then move to the seacoasts for the winter. All three come to Colorado and can be found almost every winter.
They are completely black ducks, but two of them have their own patterns of white patches that help identify them. They also have humped, puffy beaks that defy the stereotypical image of ducks having flat beaks. Seeing them would be fun.
Hack, hack, sniff, aah-hooh. Sniff.
A trumpeter swan now swims a small reservoir near Ft. Collins. That bird makes a wonderful success story.
Too heavily hunted for a century, the trumpeter as a species vanished from about four-fifths of its natural geographic distribution; its population steadily dwindled to just a few tens of thousands of birds.
Laws were established to protect the trumpeter swan from being hunted or just shot for no reason, and in the last half century its population has made a dramatic recovery.
I haven’t seen one in about five years, so finding this one would also be a treat.
Cough, cough, hack, sniff, cough. Cough. Sniff. Aahuugh.
A Harris’s hawk spent a few weeks in the eastern part of Ft. Collins. A social hawk, it usually occurs in small groups of a dozen or less. But individuals wander and show up far from their usual home of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Though I have seen this attractive hawk in all those states, I have never found one in Colorado. Many years can pass between their erratic visits, so seeing one here would be a distinctive pleasure.
Eh-heh-eh-heh-eh-hum. Sniff. Hack. Cough. Sniff. Yeehh.
But you may have noticed that I have developed a really bad cold, so the only place I’m going is back to bed. If the birds are still there day after tomorrow, I might hobble after one.
Aa-choo.