I birded southeastern CO from January 3rd thru the 9th, leaving this morning the 10th.
SUMMARY OF VIRTUAL LAMAR CBC CIRCLE (all Prowers except for sliver of Bent at "town" of Prowers/Ark River on Bent CR34.5): LCC Only got down there once and saw 2 male and 1 female Northern Cardinals; 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, several Cedar Waxwings. I missed the reported Brown Thrasher (very likely lurking in one of the thickets somewhere), and White-throated Sparrow. Harris's Sparrow, also reported in late December, eluded detection. Willow Creek Park (1 adult male and 1 juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the northwest corner of the park on the west side of Willow Creek just south of the community swimming pool, in pines mostly, but they occasionally retreat to Siberian elms and a honeylocust. The juvenile seems to like the pines across the street (east of) 1305/1305A Parkview Street. Both can be tough to detect if not actively working sap wells or giving an occasional "mew" call). Riverside Cemetery (not much here, but there is an open water ditch on the north side of the field north of the cemetery which is lined with berry-laden junipers. Janeal Thompson and I found 59 Yellow-rumped Warblers in these junipers the other day, along with hundreds of robins, about a half dozen Mourning Doves, an attendant Merlin, and an unidentified accipiter that was probably a Cooper's. Fairmount Cemetery (Townsend's Solitaire). I also think I caught a glimpse of a Common Grackle at a feeder along the west side of Memorial Drive just across from the northwest corner of the cemetery. Hospital complex east of Memorial Drive Eastern Bluebird (at least 3, along with zillions of robins in Russian-olives) Arkansas River e of US287/US50 just northeast of the Cow Palace Motel (Wilson's Snipe, Spotted Towhee, Killdeer, Great Blue Heron, American Coots, huge flock of thousands of American Crows stream over this area starting about 2:30pm heading sw, probably to the big feedlot west of town) Walmart/Dollar General stores (usually Great-tailed Grackles can be found in the parking lots) Willow Valley Subdivision (at private residence, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted and White-breasted (eastern) Nuthatch, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Purple Finch (female eastern), Red-bellied Woodpecker, White-winged and Cassiar's Dark-eyed Junco, Brown Creeper, White-winged Dove). Lots of Scaled Quail around the houses at the east end of Austin Drive east of Memorial Drive north of Fairmount Cemetery. All the water in the Lamar area except the Arkansas River is frozen. There is a huge group of geese (all five expected species) north of the train stop/collection of homes called Carlton several miles east of Lamar (about half way between Lamar and Granada) along US50. Go north on Prowers CR19 about half a mile and look west into the corn stubble fields. I would estimate over 10,000 birds, about an even mix of "White" and "White-cheeked". Seeing this many dark geese, mostly Lesser Canadas, in Prowers County is unusual. Red-tails are the dominant buteo in the Lamar area, including a young Rufous morph that had me going until Jerry Liguori and Steve Mlodinow threw water on the fire. Ferruginous Hawks are a distant second in the area this winter. I saw very few Rough-legs this visit until I got up between Hugo and Limon on US287. Fair number of both Bald and Golden Eagles around, especially northeast of town along the river and where the big high poles occur near p-dog towns, respectively. Saw at least 3 different Merlins near Lamar, lots of harriers, one sharpie, no Prairie Falcons, no Cooper's (for sure). Be advised, there is a falconer who runs a Peregrine Falcon southeast of town (near the city wind turbines) along CR12. SUMMARY OF ELSEWHERE: South of Carlton on Prowers CRs 19 and 21: lots of Lapland Longspurs and the one Ladderbacked Woodpecker per post of a few days ago Cottonwood Canyon (Baca mostly, with a sliver of Las Animas) had an unusual 9 Steller's Jays on 1/8, along with Canyon Wrens, Bewick's Wren, Western Scrub-Jay. I struck out on things present in December there, like Winter Wren and Golden-crowned Kinglet. Carrizo Canyon Picnic Area (Baca) - not a lot, 1 Bewick's Wren, a solitaire. No doubt I missed some things that spishing and tapes would have produced. Good luck figuring out the ravens along US287 south of Lamar to Road M south of Springfield and west to Carrizo Creek Picnic Area/Cottonwood Canyon. I am sure both Common and Chihuahuan are represented but would not want to wager my pension of the ID of any one particular individual. Along the outlet canal below the John Martin Res dam (Bent), a female Ladder-backed Woodpecker persists in the fire-stressed tamarisks near the spillway. Missed the roadrunner near Lake Hasty that was there for the CBC and seen recently by Duane Nelson. Shrikes in southeastern CO this winter seem to be about 75% Loggerhead, with only a few Northerns. In the past I have sensed the normal mix to be about 50-50. Porcupines have been below the dam at Two Buttes for decades, but I've never seen 4 like were present this past visit. It appeared they were eating the bark of cottonwood, something I don't remember seeing before. Normal, or desperation? As is the case throughout much of eastern CO, I fear many of the trees suffered damage from the late fall polar vortex cold snap. For example, at LCC, we saw the ground littered with frozen-off cottonwood buds that would have produced next spring's crop of leaves. I suspect many, many trees are dead or suffered heavy crown dieback. We shall see come budbreak what kind of cards were dealt. That area down there just can't seem to buy a break from the elements. Northwest of Kit Carson on US287 today I had a roadkilled Barn Owl at mp441 (Cheyenne), one of the few that overwinter on the eastern plains. I came home from this visit with 87 bird species, which, given the shortage of water (no gulls, grebes, loons, very few ducks), is a respectable total. Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- 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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. 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