Posted Tuesday, April 20, 2004

5/4 — Diane Penttila, Wildlife Biologist, Ouray National Wildlife Refuge a General Water Bird Survey and reported observing the following birds:

• Canada Geese, 55 (first goose brood seen April, 27)
• Mallard, 86
• Gadwall, 425
• Northern Shoveler, 35
• American Wigeon, 3
• Northern Pintail, 49
• Green-winged Teal, 63
• Cinnamon Teal, 71
• Blue-winged Teal, 9
• Common Merganser, 19
• Bufflehead, 3
• Ring-necked Duck, 18
• Scaup, 19
• Redhead, 46
• Ruddy Duck, 40
• American Coot, 549
• Pied-billed Grebe, 8
• Western Grebe, 56
• Clark's Grebe, 17
• Horned Grebe, 1
• Eared Grebe, 13
• Great Blue Heron, 48 (including, 4 colonies)
• Great Egret, 1
• Snowy Egret, 2
• Black-crowned Night Heron, 4
• Double-crested Cormorant, 122
• American White Pelican, 413
• White-faced Ibis, 67
• Killdeer, 14
• American Avocet, 64
• Black-necked Stilt, 33
• Marbled Godwit, 12
• Lesser Yellowlegs, 33
• Semipalmated Plover, 3
• Dowitchers Spp., 27
• Wilson's Phalarope, 49
• Western Sandpiper, 9
• Least Sandpiper, 8
• Willet, 4
• Black-bellied Plover, 1
• American Kestrel, 5
• Turkey Vulture, 1
• Ring-billed Gull, 37
• Bonaparte's Gull, 1
• Forster's Tern, 47
• Caspian Tern, 2

The distractions: red-winged blackbird, yellow-headed blackbird, western meadowlark, mourning dove, spotted towhee, Bullock's Oriole, American robin, western kingbird, Yellow-rumped warbler, house wren, American goldfinch, northern flicker, black-billed magpie, starling, ring-necked pheasant, lark sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, chipping sparrow, Say's phoebe, northern rough-winged swallow, tree swallow, cliff swallow (in a very active colony), mountain bluebird, Plumbeous vireo

REMINDER: Our Open House is this Saturday, 7:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lots of fun things for the whole family. Lots of birds arriving, so many distractions on this survey it was hard to keep focused. So many distractions I listed them all at the bottom. Upland flowers are starting to bloom also.