Yesterday I back in the Park, this time focused mostly on exploring roads on the northwest edge of the county, slipping over into JeffCo a bit.
I think the day's best bird was a rare-in-winter* Lewis's Woodpecker* that was near the west end of Kudu Trail, west of Bailey off the east end of CR 72. The same spot had large numbers of *Clark's Nutcrackers* working the Ponderosa cones. There were small numbers of three flavors of *Rosy-Finches* at a handful of spots at feeders in both counties, but the feeders up in Jefferson had all three species with cumulative totals into the low 100s. *Red Crossbills* (mostly Type 2) were frequent in many areas. Driving the roads also produced *Pine Grosbeak* (3 along Wandcrest Road were in JeffCo), *Gray Jays*, *Evening Grosbeaks*, a *Northern Goshawk*, and a pleathora of *Cassin's Finches*. The total tally of Cassin's from all the day's stops was 414 birds! One stop along Holmes Gulch Road (off Hi Meadow off CR 72) had 110 Cassin's crowding in to surrounding pines in response to my pygmy-owl imitation. Quite a few were singing, which I had not otherwise encountered so far this season. There were other apparent seasonal changes. *Townsend's Solitaires* had moved into the area in numbers, probably in response to the ripening juniper berry crop. I had found just one or a few on most of my Park County outings from late fall into January, but they were sparse and quite local. Yesterday I had them at 13 stops totaling 25 individuals. And *Song Sparrows*, rare in Park in winter were singing, and somewhat more numerous (7) than other December to January visits, which usually had just 0 to 1 birds. It was a lovely day. The roads in the relatively developed northwest part of the county (North Fork South Platte watershed; Pine Junction / Bailey region) have some of the most bountiful birding in the county at this time. David Suddjian Littleton, CO -- 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/CAGj6RorrYCZ%2BXn6uxSOww_5tVvBTFSyC57yFPUkHdMTQKFL_0A%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
