Ken Ecton and I took a pleasant drive up to Cameron Pass and Walden yesterday.
The highlights were: The feeders at the Moose Visitor Center at Gould along SR14 on the Jackson County side of Cameron Pass. In unwindy air and reasonable temps for 9300 feet above sea level we enjoyed: Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches (250-300, many of them Hepburn's type) Brown-capped Rosy-Finches (very few, I noted 2-3) [No Black Rosy-Finches, despite considerable searching on our part of the very skittish flock] Pine Grosbeak (10-15 - no color in the biggest Crayola box matches the golden brown of those females!) Gray Jay (few) White-throated Sparrow (1, previously reported by the Parks & Wildlife staff and Rachel, did not see the second individual) Common Grackle (1, not a species one would expect in February in the CO subalpine perched in lodgepole pines & flying around with rosy-finches) Three-toed Woodpecker (heard drumming- if I'm decoding its Morse correctly, the message was "pine beetle infestation all but over up here, send more beetles") The weather was too nice to attract much to the feeders in Walden. Mr. Fliniau reports only having rosy-finches (no Blacks) at their feeders by the school once this winter (yesterday). Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge Golden Eagle (few) Rough-legged Hawk (at least 5, including one rare dark-morph) Greater Sage-Grouse (lots of tracks but we couldn't spot a live one) Elk (278) Pronghorn (74) White-tailed Jackrabbit (1 white form (the excellent Kaufman mammal guide says typical in winter in high-altitude areas) - in my experience white-tails are much less common than Black-tailed Jackrabbits in CO and I don't recall ever seeing a white form. We owe our seeing it to a coyote that flushed it from among the sagebrush, but then curiously did not pursue it). Of note, most of the roads were open on the refuge, the snow levels are low, but drifting prevents driving the entire auto loop. Only birds we saw were the above two species and a few Common Ravens. Quite a contrast to the exceptional productivity of this place in the summer. On the drive home in upper Poudre Canyon Ken spotted an Ermine in its white-with-black-tipped-tail coat run across SR14. Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- 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.
