Canon City area on 3/21-22/06

Light snow and cold for the past several days have brought brought a few interesting birds to the area. Yesterday I found Greater Yellowlegs at a private pond in Canon City and at the Sumo Golf Course pond in Florence. The golf course pond, viewable from a public road with a scope, has had some rarities in the past; however due to increased building of houses nearby and increased golfing, there have been few birds there until the weather made golfing less inviting. This pond also had 7 Redheads.

Brush Hollow Reservoir has also been more productive at least in part due to the paucity of fishermen braving the weather and a lack of boats. I saw the first Ruddy Ducks of the year, 1 a male in basic plumage, 2 females and the last bird sleeping. There were 2 Canvasback there today, both females and several Lesser Scaup in addition to American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Ring-necked Ducks, and Common Mergansers. Landbirds included a Say's Phoebe and a number of Mtn Bluebirds. There were also 2 Ring-billed Gulls that were later joined by 3 mostly brown gulls (with mostly black bills) and a white-headed gull that was significantly larger than the Ring-billed. I am not very proficient in gull-id but I believe 2 of these were 1st year Herring Gulls (larger than Ring-billed, dark tail feathers, mostly brown on body, mostly black, large bill). The white-headed gull with them may also have been a Herring Gull but I was unable to see identifying features.

On CR123 on the way back from Brush Hollow Reservoir yesterday a flock of 12-15 Scaled Quail flew at the edge of the road. Scaled Quail can be found in a number of areas in Fremont Co, though they are not as common as a decade ago (likely due to increased development of land).

And late this afternoon I watched 3 Sandhill Cranes flying low over agricultural fields just east of Canon City and a rather large flock (for this area with few lakes/ponds) of white-headed gulls migrating through the area.
SeEtta