ARCTIC LOON SPOTTED IN COLORADOFRANKTOWN, Colorado -- A lone Arctic loon, spotted by Franktown, Colorado residents Hugh and Urling Kingery, sent state bird-lovers flocking to catch a glimpse of a species never before recorded in the state."There must have been 20 people out here looking at the bird through scopes," Hugh Kingery said. "All these guys have cellphones, and they were all calling their friends and telling them to come see this thing — bird-watchers do that kind of thing." Tony Leukering, chairman of the records committee for Colorado Field Ornithologists, likened the discovery to a stamp collector finding a rare stamp. The loon probably traveled along the Rocky Mountains from the interior of Alaska until it found a good stopping point among Colorado's many bodies of water. It's a far cry from its usual wintering locales in China, Japan and Taiwan, Leukering said. |