Not inclined to join the mob scene at area malls and presented with another mild, sunny morning along the Front Range, my wife and I decided to take a hike along the South Platte River. A series of cold nights have coated many of the smaller ponds with a sheet of ice and wintering waterfowl are now congregating along the river and its adjacent lakes.
Joining the permanent residents (mallards, gadwalls, Canada geese, wood ducks, northern shovelers, American wigeon and common mergansers) were an excellent variety of winter residents and visitors; these included buffleheads, common goldeneyes, American coot, hooded mergansers, lesser scaup, green-winged teal and ring-necked ducks. On our walk through the South Platte Valley we also encountered belted kingfishers, northern flickers, red-tailed hawks, a lone rough-legged hawk, black-billed magpies, great blue herons, ring-billed gulls, song sparrows, red-winged blackbirds and an industrious muskrat.
But the highlight of this November morning was a flock of tundra swans, winging their way toward Chatfield Reservoir. All eight were in full adult plumage and were unusually silent on their graceful flight above the South Platte. After breeding on the Arctic tundra of Alaska and northern Canada, most tundra swans winter on estuaries along the mid Atlantic and Pacific Coasts; smaller numbers migrate through the interior, heading for the marshlands of New Mexico and Texas.
