A Visit with Home Lake Birds

April14, 2019

I got to go to Bacca National Wildlife Refuge to test their fire extinguishers and thought I'd hunt bees and do some hikes in the area. But the weekend weather was supposed to be cold, windy, rainy and possibly snowy, so I came back home Friday afternoon. Then the weekend turned out to be mostly sunny and I was getting stir crazy.  I heard that Home Lake in my nearest town of Monte Vista, was a birding hotspot so decided to go check it out.

I had passed by it during the Crane Festival on several of the bus tours, but saw nothing there. I was surprised to find the lake full of birds ranging from pelicans to avocets.  I should have gone much earlier to get better pictures, but the birds were still mostly active, with only a few ruddy ducks already taking their morning nap.

There were at least a half dozen greater yellowlegs

Ducks are mostly in pairs, as they get ready to breed

I was excited to see my favorite duck, the American widgeon, hanging out in the raft of coots. 

There were at least twenty gadwall

I love the muted the colors of  gadwall

There were only a hand full of ruddy ducks 

American widgeon and American coot

The northern shovelers pair demonstrates why I have to say lawdy gawdy before I can say their name

A view across the lake to the San Juan Mountains

Cinnamon teal are the most common of teal here

A few of about fifty white pelicans

I went across the street and through an open gate and continued to look for birds.  About fifteen minutes later, a guy backed his truck up to where I was and jumped out to tell me that I wasn't supposed to be there.  I apologized and said the gate was open and I followed the directions to be careful of the curve.  He said I could stay and offered me new places to go. So I continued birding at the water treatment plant.

Canada geese have paired up 

This distant picture was of the only blue-winged teal I found 

On the personal front, I've been busy trying to find all the fire extinguishers on three refuges, test them, get records of them into a spread sheet. Now I'm finished until we get the required tests on those extinguishers that are due for their six or twelve year tests. I've also been working on getting expired medical supplies cleaned out and replaced from all our first aid kits in our vehicles and offices.

And I'm starting to get treatment for my neck so I have hopes of getting back to being able to enjoy photography, hiking, and biking some day.