Birding in the snow

I have been in the Rocky Ford/La Junta area for the past several days for the Arkansas River Basin Water Forum (I am on the planning committee, one of the conservation related activities I do as water is very important to birds and environment). We were supposed to get this major blizzard that didn't materialize, but it has rained and snowed much of that time leaving dirt roads muddy.

When the Forum ended mid-afternoon, I took off to get in some birding. It was a little challenging as it was snowing some and visibility limited. However, I quickly found a flock of 80-100 migrating Franklin's Gulls foraging in a farm field. As is not uncommon, many of them had a pinkish cast to the white sections of their plumage.

At Lake Meredith I found hundreds of Northern Shoverlers, mostly paired-up and feeding with their mates. I saw the first of the year Barn Swallows foraging above the lake with Northern Rough-winged Swallows. Also first of the year was 1 male Blue-winged Teal. There were a few Eared Grebes, Cinnamon Teal, Western Grebes and Bufflehead with larger numbers of Ruddy Ducks, and Lesser Scaup. As the lake is full of irrigation water there is not much shoreline and what is there is often covered with tumbleweeds (Russian Thistle) and Kochia (another weed) so the only shorebird I saw was a Killdeer.

At nearby Lake Henry (road was very muddy) I found 1 American Avocet, some Am White Pelicans, some white-headed gulls and Northern Shoverlers. Visibility was so limited I couldn't see the other side of the lake so could have been much more there.

More later.
SeEtta

Horned & Eared Grebes getting all dressed up (amended)

Boy, I had to amend this post as it was all goofed up. I had typed the description for the Horned Grebes then added photos and a title for a page I was going to do separately for Eared Grebes. I found some of the Eared Grebe photos weren't very good so was going to combine both species in one post and got it messed up so I have amended the post. (that's what happens when I finish my posting too late at night)

After today's rain let up, I headed for Brush Hollow Reservoir to see if the weather front had brought in any migrating birds as can happen. I was delighted to find 5 Eared Grebes in varying stages of molt from their drab basic (winter) plumage to the very colorful altenate (breeding) plumage. Also present were 2 Horned Grebes already in alternate (breeding) plumage Of course they moved further out from shore when I arrived and stayed too far out on the water for even my 12X digital lens to get in a reasonable manner. After I drove a ways off looking for other birds, I noticed several of these grebes were feeding near the shore. So I did my best stealth approach, keeping some juniper trees between me and the grebes as I approached to about 50 feet from where they were feeding.

Though these are not the finest pics of these beauties, I think they provide reasonable views of one of the Eared Grebes undergoing molt. The colorful appearance of the grebe in the top photo show the gold feathers-"horns"-for which they are named. The middle pic shows off the gold "horns" in a rear shot. And the bottom pic shows one of the Eared Grebes in the process of molting--though still mostly in basic plumage it has acquired some of the golden "ear" feathers of alternate plumage.