I made stops along a plethora of roads in Elbert County today, mostly in the Elizabeth area, and along roads not too far east of Kiowa and Elbert.
Some areas of the large north-south band of Ponderosa pine forest near Elizabeth have a strong cone crop, and birds are plentiful where the cones are numerous. Of note this morning were good numbers of *Cassin's Finches*. I tallied 62 individuals that I encountered at 6 of 18 stops in the pine forest near Elizabeth north of Highway 86. They were found along Pinion Drive east of CR 21, Forest Park Road, Bonnie Ridge Road west of CR 21, and Saddlewood Road west of CR 21. The largest number (27) were at and around a feeder along Bonnie Ridge Road 1.0 mile east of CR 21, and these included one abnormally-plumaged male with a striking white face. The best viewing were of a flock of 17 with Red Crossbills at Pinion x Canyon Trail. I'm not sure how rare Cassin's is in Elbert (perhaps only regular?). Meager prior eBird submissions for the county suggested it is rare, but the county is so lightly (e)birded in winter it is hard to make much of that. Well, they are pretty common right now. Perhaps the best bird of the day was an adult *Northern Goshawk* along Bonnie Ridge Road. I flushed it from a pine as a I drove along and I had excellent looks as if flew along right in front of the car, then veered off south into the woods. Area of pine forest I visited elsewhere today had fewer cones, and no Cassin's, although 3 *Cassin's* were at a feeder in the town of Elbert. Type 2 *Red Crossbills* were frequent in the forest near Elizabeth. Out in the open fields away from the trees I found few birds, as expected. But a *Lapland Longspur* was along CR at CR 150 and 2 Laplands were along CR 94 east of CR 33. A flock of 7 *Mountain Bluebirds* were at CR 94 at CR 49. Two *Common Ravens* were at CR 69 north of CR 94, and one more was along CR 94 a mile west of CR 49. *Northern Shrike* was at CR 33 near CR 150 and CR 69 at CR 94. Horned Larks were singing quite a bit. 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/CAGj6RooVFF0TLLiUifdjZAM%2BFaJQs_Mr1mKuXc7385P0s-3kyQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
