After a week of cold weather, I was anxious to get outside and bird on Saturday. I checked the rare bird reports, and there really wasn’t anything worth chasing. When I went to bed on Friday, I had no idea where I’d head in the morning or if I’d just stay home.
But in the morning, I decided to go out and find a rarity of my own — something for other birders to chase. This is a constant wish by all birders, but it rarely happens. That’s why they’re called rarities.
I headed down to Lake Pueblo State Park and parked by Valco Ponds. I walked to the nearest pond and found it, not frozen over like I expected, but filled with ducks. A lot of times when I find a lot of ducks, I scan to see what species are there but just make wild estimates of the numbers for my eBird checklist. But I wasn’t in a hurry this day, so I took my time. I picked one species and did a slow scan from one end of the pond to the next, counting individuals. Then I picked another species and did the same thing. I’d been there about 10 minutes when I spotted a Eurasian Wigeon. I had my rarity.
Now, as rarities go, it wasn’t spectacular. A Eurasian Wigeon had been seen on that same pond in December — I’d seen it there myself. Chances are very good that this was the same bird. But it hadn’t been seen in a couple months, and it’s still a rare bird. That’s it on the left, chasing a female American Wigeon. (The two birds in the foreground are a pair of Hooded Mergansers.)
I took a slow stroll around the other ponds and, an hour or so after I spotted the wigeon, I submitted my Valco Ponds checklist on eBird. Then I headed up the river. I saw a Merlin, which kept flying ahead of me and never let me get close enough for a good photo. I also saw my first-of-the-year Northern Shrike. Later in the day, about half a mile away, I saw a Loggerhead Shrike, making this the first time that I’ve seen both shrikes in the same day. Here are some other photos from the day.
The bird in the right foreground is a female Redhead. The birds on the left and right are a pair of American Wigeons. The red bird in the middle is a Cinnamon Teal, also my first of the year and a little bit early for the species.
American Coot
Northern Pintail
Buffleheads
Red-breasted Merganser (chasing a female)
Two large flocks of Snow Geese flew over headed northwest. I estimated 400 birds, about a dozen of which were of the blue phase — like the top bird in the second photo.
American Kestrel
Immature Northern Shrike
Immature Cooper’s Hawk
Bald Eagle
Wilson’s Snipe
In all, I walked more than seven miles, and it was early afternoon when I got back near where I’d parked my car. On the bridge over the river, I met Brandon Percival, one of the top-notch birders in Colorado and a very nice guy. I’ve run into him several times — often enough that we recognize each other. As soon as he saw me, he said, “Thanks for the wigeon.” He was with another birder, and they’d come to see the duck because of my checklist.
When I got to the pond, there were five or six other birders there to see the bird. Here’s what the Colorado rare bird report looked like later that day.
And later that day, Brandon sent this out on the Colorado Birds report.
Over the weekend, many birders went to see it. So even though it wasn’t ultra-exciting, I did find a rarity.