Funny Chris Rurik should mention birding Elbert County, as I found myself there yesterday. I had decided to explore the open country east and southeast of Aurora Reservoir, and just drove and picked roads and made a series of 5 min stops at varying intervals. Most of them were in Elbert County, although I did not even know there *was* an Elbert County before yesterday. (I'm still pretty new here in Colorado). Now I know. And simply based on eBird data for Elbert it looks like it is not too often birded (or at least eBirded).
I think one of the better finds was a SHORT-EARED OWL in Arapahoe flying east of the rest stop that is along I-70 a short way north of Arapahoe's southern border. A MERLIN was in Agate, Elbert Co. I encountered TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRES at several spots in the wide open where there were plantings of junipers near houses, and several in some natural juniper / ponderosa pine habitat in Elbert. I had one LAPLAND LONGSPUR in Arapahoe (Kiowa-Bennett Road), and two in Elbert Co (CR 53 and CR 162), and two NORTHERN SHRIKES in Elbert Co. Other than those mentioned above, raptors included 7 FERRUGINOUS HAWKS, 1 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, 1 HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK, and 1 GOLDEN EAGLE. David Suddjian Littleton -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAGj6RoqdpjzBXgqo3LbDjjHBn5%2B6vGNN5KVKpsZ-gMcrecKfjw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
