Folks, Loch and I birded portions of Yuma County yesterday and today, while scouting for next week's Bonny CBC. Nothing earth-shattering but there were a few notables. First, the redpoll outbreak of 2011 has not materialized in Yuma county. We scoured many seed heads and American Goldfinches and found zero of the red-polled finches. Also the number of Snowy Owls, despite all of the e-Bird stick-pins, was equal to the number of redpolls divided by zero. American Robins however were in good supply, along with Dark-eyed Juncos of 3 races. We came across a flock of perhaps 80 Lapland Longspurs, possibly as many as the number of Horned Larks we observed in 2 days. Eastern Screech Owls continue to call during the day out there, when 'prompted' and Barred Owls continue elude us. Ring-necked Pheasants, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Eastern Bluebirds, Black-capped Chickadees, Lark Buntings and Field Sparrows were well represented. Actually the one Field Sparrow we found would be an addition to the Bonny CBC list, should it stay till next week. 6 Lark Buntings were found north of Wray (where prairie-chickens don't exist), which is quite astonishing given the date. A single Purple Finch (female-looking) was seen and photographed within the circle! Bonny Reservoir is 99% frozen. The open 1% contains 99% of the white-cheeked geese and Mallards of Colorado, I am convinced. There are still a few bunks remaining for next weeks CBC. If you are interested, please email or call me offline.
Glenn Walbek Castle Rock, CO http://www.flickr.com/photos/lochkilpatrick http://www.pbase.com/gwalbek/2011_birds -- 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.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
