Yesterday I drove up to Westcliffe in hopes that the snow in that area the day before had held the flock of Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches that Jane Pederson was nice enough to note in her CBC report from Sunday. I was delighted to find more than a hundred Rosy-Finches at the St. Andrew Golf Course just out of Westcliffe, a real treat as I have not seen any for some years. I got a lot of good photos of them that I have uploaded them to my Birds and Nature blog <http://birdsandnature.blogspot.com/>.
I thought I saw one or more Brown-capped Rosy-Finches in that constantly moving flock. Fortunately I got one reasonably good and a second less good photo of a Rosy-Finch that I believe is a female. It does not show any pink but *Birds of North America* online states that the females may have little or no pink in their plumage. I have also uploaded those photos for *constructive* comment by those who have more experience in separating these similar species. I was surprised to find only one Red-tailed Hawk in a short raptor tour I took around Westcliffe and not one Rough-legged Hawk--I don't remember ever going there in the winter without seeing multiple birds of this wintering species. I was pleased to see good numbers and largish flocks of magpies--southern Colorado really saw numbers plummet when West Nile virus hit some years ago and they have been slow in recovery. SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com -- 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/CAAUvckrfNMx9pnVShsvyWZ_e6axN7VT%2B31eFRNwGLWnZBNNvLw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
