With all do respect to Neil Young, I did not shoot my baby but did see a fair variety of wildlife along the South Platte this morning. Though snow had been forecast, it was sunny and cool and I enjoyed a pleasant, two-mile walk.
Since most of the ponds and lakes are frozen across the South Platte Valley, I expected to see a larger number of waterfowl on the river but their diversity was decent. Canada geese, cackling geese and mallards were most abundant, joined by small groups or pairs of buffleheads, common goldeneyes, gadwall, hooded mergansers, green-winged teal and pied-billed grebes. A red-tailed hawk was the only raptor that I observed and a muskrat was the lone mammal that I encountered along the river.
The highlight of my walk was a flock of twenty greater scaup that have been wintering along the same stretch of the South Platte for the past several years. Another sighting of note was the mating behavior of a male common goldeneye; a bit earlier than usual, it was the first sign of spring that I have observed this year.
