Today was the date for the 75th Boulder CBC, and a good and cold one at that. The count total stands at 104 species currently, but compiler Bill Schmoker will continue to add new species from late reporting precincts as the days go by (e.g., no Woodhouse's Scrub Jay reported-maybe people couldn't find Western?)
For the last dozen years or so, I have counted the Valmont Reservoir area. Sadly, this is the last winter that Xcel will use the reservoirs as turbine cooling ponds and Valmont is likely to be frozen on years like this one. So expect a decline of 10 or so species on the Boulder count beginning next year. This year, however, was a special one as the severe weather of the past few days concentrated and kept birds at Valmont. On this count we (Peter Burke, John Vanderpoel and Valmont Plant Manager, Dave Madonna joined me) found the five most common geese (i.e., no Brant) plus Tundra Swan (4); all of the most regular duck species except Northern Pintail (which was missed on the count) and Green-winged Teal; four grebe species (Western, Pied-billed, Eared and Red-necked); four gulls (including 2 Lesser Black-backed and California); Double-crested Cormorant (24); and Black-crowned Night Heron. To add in a passerine highlight, our last added bird of the day was a Gray Catbird. Bill Kaempfer Boulder -- 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/SN1PR0301MB1648BB574CA1C786F3ACA4F3E1910%40SN1PR0301MB1648.namprd03.prod.outlook.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
