Ted, Very persuasive comments about including exotics on Christmas Bird Counts. I encourage all of you CBCers to take note of Ted's article! Make sure you read it!
Incidentally, I had a golden-crowned kinglet in a pine tree in our front yard (south of Cherry Creek Reservoir) on Dec. 15, the first I'd seen in Arapahoe County in 25 years of living here. The only othe places I'd seen them outside of foothills/mountains type habitats are Pueblo Reservoir and Barr Lake. I'm sure some of you great county listers have found them in more places, but it is apparent you really have to be working hard (or lucky in my case) to find them in the east. Larry Modesitt -----Original Message----- From: Ted Floyd <[email protected]> To: cobirds <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, Dec 29, 2009 4:17 am Subject: [cobirds] City Park, Denver County, Dec. 28th Hello, Birders. Hannah and Andrew and I went scouting for the Denver-Urban CBC yesterday, Monday, Dec. 28th. We visited City Park, Denver County where we found: 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet. At the Denver Zoo, just south of the merry-go-round, in a tree at 39.749557 North, 104.953181 West. This species is, in my experience, hard to find on Colorado's eastern plains. In the past three years, I've seen a grand total of zero anywhere east of the mountains. 8 Common Grackles. Also at the Denver Zoo, near the Forest Aviary exhibit, specifically at 39.750399 North, 104.955606 West. Several of them were singing. 1 male Prairie Merlin. The bird was perched up in a tall tree, specifically atop a branch at 39.748555 North, 104.955987 West. Then it flew around a while, causing general avian mayhem throughout City Park. Cackling Geese. I was a bit surprised to see a goodly 95 still hanging on at Duck Lake, located at 39.748493 North, 104.953830 West. Elsewhere in the Front Range region, numbers have been way down--like, down to zero in some of the big goose flocks in Boulder County--in the past week. That's normal, as Cackling Goose numbers drop sharply, it seems, in the last few days of the year; our "winter" birds are mainly late-fall migrants, really. By mid-January, a Cackling Goose in, say, Boulder County, is actually mildly notable. 3 Toulouse Geese. Three adults, present for some time, still hanging on in City Park. We saw two at 39.747569 North, 104.954989 West and another at 39.745268 North, 104.954656 West. Note that these three birds, assuming they remain for the CBC, do indeed "count" for the official tally. Here's why: http://tiny.cc/lLBcu ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Check out Birding magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BirdingMagazine ------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222984/direct/01/ -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en
