A hardy 10 individuals braved the minus 17 degrees temps and headed out to conduct the 54th Monte Vista Refuge count.Weather included clear to dense fog. Because of heavy recent snows, I was unable to take my team to the foothills, and so we missed many birds that would normally be counted (like Pinyon, Scrub Jays, Clarks, Townsend Solitaire, Mtn Chickadee, Spotted Towhee etc).
Highlights of the count were 150 Brown-capped Rosy-finch, as well as one Black and one Gray-crowned. A Merlin chased away a Prairie Falcon in an area of 50 Eurasian Collared Doves, as if there wasn't enough to go around! A Ferruginous Hawk was a good find. One Kingfisher must have been hungry trying to find open water since everything was frozen! Our count ended up a little lower than usual with a tentative total of around 39 species. But a good day was had by all! Thanks to Lisa Clements who organized the count. John Rawinski Monte Vista -- 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.
