Birders,
The John Martin Reservoir CBC was held on December 14th. With both the
reservoir and Lake Hasty at least 99% frozen, the numbers and variety of
waterfowl were way down. However, quality and diversity of bird species
were spectacular. We ended up with 106 species, and another 10 Count
Week birds. We added four new species for the count, some mildly
expected, and at least one species that no one remotely expected.
Say's Phoebe was new for the count, found exactly where it had been
during Count Week. The only surprise was that it was joined by a second
Say's Phoebe on Count Day. Two Lesser Goldfinches were new for the
count, and documented photographically.
A calling Eastern Screech-Owl was new for the count. The story of how it
was found may be interesting to some. The staked-out Mountain Chickadees
were hard to find. One party played a tape of Black-capped Chickadees
mobbing a calling Eastern Screech Owl to try to draw in the chickadees.
An Eastern Screech-Owl responded to the mobbing tape. A Western
Screech-Owl was heard in another part of the circle on Count Day as
well, maybe shedding light on the contact zone between these two species.
The best bird of the day occurred during our lunch break at my feeder.
While waiting for one party to arrive for lunch, we periodically checked
my feeder. During one scan, I noticed a brownish bird, noticeably
smaller than a House Sparrow eating millet. It had a bluish, slender
tail, and a bicolored, small bill. Wing bars were faint at best. The
throat was whitish, and the chest was distinctly streaked. We looked
through binoculars and rushed for cameras. We identified the bird as a
first winter female Indigo Bunting. Documentation will be submitted for
this extraordinary winter record.
I'll only annotate a couple of other records:
-Six species of Gulls, including an adult Great Black-backed.
-Double-digit Western Scrub-Jays. One Mountain Chickadee.
-Mountain Bluebird, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Curve-billed
Thrasher, Rusty Blackbird.
-Chestnut-collared Longspur (12) one adult male photographed
-Field Sparrow (5!), Lincoln's Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow.
-Savannah Sparrow (37) photographed. There may have been many more
present and not flushed, a record for the ages?
-Snow Bunting (1) seen and heard.
Respectfully submitted,
Duane Nelson
Las Animas, CO
--
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.
