Lathrop State Park, Walsenburg

I stopped at Latrop State Park this afternoon on my way to Trinidad. This is a good birding spot just a few miles west of Walsenburg. There were high wind warnings on the road and the winds were causing white caps on both Martin and Horseshoe Lakes so it was hard to see some of the waterfowl (but these were chinook winds so the temps were in the mid to upper 50's in late afternoon) There was only one Bald Eagle and it was sitting on the edge of a little ice on Horsehoe Lake. Probably due to its presence and the bad winds, I couldn't find any waterfowl on this smaller lake.

Martin Lake had one female Greater Scaup. Surprisingly there weren't any loons. There were small flocks of Common Goldeneye, Redheads, Common Mergansers (all but one were males), white-headed gulls on the lake. I finally found a small flock of 8 Bushtits--this lake has groves of pinyon-juniper all around it so I usually see lots of Bushtits here. There were only a few dark-headed geese visible though others may have been on the adjacent golf course that I didn't check out. A single Red-tailed Hawk played in the winds. I also saw several flocks of Robins and a flock of 10-15 Black-billed Magpies.

There were also Gadwalls, Green-winged Teal and some Mallards on the small wetland pond south of Horseshoe Lake.

Tomorrow I will check out Trinidad Lake in hopes the big arctic front coming through will have brought some interesting waterfowl there.
SeEtta