The DenverUrban Count smiled with more participants than ever: 138
Field Workers and 17 FeederWatchers. We tallied 86 species and 46,484
individuals, compared with the average 83 species and38,528 individuals.
Canada/Cacklinggeese outnumbered all the other birds – 54% of the
total. Most of the nine nextmost abundant species befit an urban count
(although lots of ducks congregatedon the South Platte):
25,197 Canada & Cackling Geese
6,035 EurasianStarling
2,841 Red-wingedBlackbird
2,544 RockPigeon
1,598 N.Shoveler
1,514 Ring-billedGull
892 Mallard
791 Am. Robin
736 Am. Crow
609 House Sparrow (one feeder watcher counted200 – “they
descended like weaver finches in Africa”).
We recorded onlytwo record-high counts:
13Pied-billed Grebes and 72 Bushtits.
Other high countsincluded
2,841 Red-wingedBlackbird (2nd highest),
27Townsend’s Solitaires (2nd highest), and
791 Am. Robin (3rd highest).
One new bird forthe count: 44 Great-tailed Grackles at a horse farm in
Aurora.
We had more low counts than high counts.
29 Blue Jays (ave. 37)
283Black-billed Magpies (ave. 650) yet Am. Crows a bit above
average;
2 Mountain Chickadees (ave. 8) but 182Black-caps – a bit more
than average – and slightly more than averagenuthatches (19 Red-breasted and 16
White-breasted);
Sparrows waydown:
35 Am. Tree Sparrows (ave. 230),
22 Song Sparrows (ave. 70) (both lowest ever),and
207Dark-eyed Juncos (ave. 402).
HouseFinches (326) and House Sparrows (609) both came in at their
lowest-evertotals, both 25% of average.
Also fewerducks (4,060 – 66% of average) and raptors (111 – 65% of
average; fewerRed-tailed Hawks than the last four years).
Thesenumbers seem to reflect the experience of other Colorado CBCs
this year, allaffected by the extreme cold in early December. Ice covered
Cherry CreekReservoir and most of the other bodies of water except for the
South Platte(even though that didn’t slow down the geese).
Hugh Kingery
Franktown, CO
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