New Year's Day brought out a big contingent of birders who saw a record number of species on the Denver (Urban) Christmas count. Its circle includes 10 miles of the South Platte, Cherry Creek Reservoir, Rocky Mtn. Arsenal NWR, downtown Denver, downtown Aurora, and more.
So far, we have 92 species -- surpassing the previous high of 91. New species for the count include the Varied Thrush that Becky Campbell saw in her yard, a Hermit Thrush that Paul Slingsby's group found along Cherry Creek, and 2 Bonaparte's Gulls reported by Mary Cay Burger's group at Cherry Creek reservoir. Perhaps the most surprising: 5 Say's Phoebes in three different territories. I don't have all the reports yet, so I can't report the total individuals seen. Cherry Cr. Res. had 1000 Common Mergansers -- tracking the huge numbers seen in the Denver CBC at Chatfield & Marston (at least 3800, I think). At the Arsenal we found 15 Long-eared Owls (including one in the same grove with a Great Horned & a Barn Owl -- interesting mixture). The Denver Zoo had its usual contingent of Common Grackles. Apparently they congregate at the Bar-headed Goose exhibit and never stray farther than 100 feet away until they leave for the summer. Hugh Kingery Franktown, 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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1520ed1cf9e-5404-1c0df%40webprd-a75.mail.aol.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
