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Field Trip ReportSaturday, February 3, 2007 Arkansas River Valley of Pueblo and Fremont Counties Led by Nick Komar, quetzal65@comcast.net, plus 5 participants. The trip began shortly after sunrise at Pueblo Reservoir State Park following a 3 hr drive from Fort Collins. We first focused on finding previously reported rare gulls among the thousands at the reservoir. We found the immature Iceland Gull, 2 Thayer's Gulls, 2 Great Black-backed Gulls and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls. We could not relocate a Mew Gull. We did relocate two rare waterfowl species: Long-tailed Duck and Surf Scoter, and a rare Black Phoebe along the river east of the reservoir. In Pueblo, we observed numerous southern Colorado specialty species including Scaled Quail, Bewick's Wren, Chihuahuan Raven and Curve-billed Thrasher. After lunch, we headed west to Canon City hoping to relocate previously reported Golden-crowned Sparrow, Rufous-crowned Sparrow and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, but were unable to find any of these. We did find more specialty species including Pinyon Jay, Juniper Titmouse and Canyon Towhee. During the trip, we also observed numerous wintering species that are rarely seen in mid-winter back home in northern Colorado: Common Loon, Double-crested Cormorant, four species of grebes (Pied-billed, Horned, Eared and Western), Say's Phoebe, Mountain and Western Bluebirds, Loggerhead Shrike, and Yellow-rumped Warbler. The weather cooperated with less wind and temperatures 20 degrees higher than forecast, reaching a balmy 46F. At the end of the day, we tallied 80 species. We had birded all day along the Arkansas River from Pueblo to the Royal Gorge west of Canon City, returning to Fort Collins after 9:00 pm. Field Trip Leader
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