All,
The John Martin Reservoir CBC took place on Monday, December 16th. The
unsettled weather throughout the state resulted in some stalwart
counters cancelling participation due to heavy snow near the Front
Range, and hazardous driving conditions. We ended up with 11
participants, providing adequate coverage of all areas. Our count total
was 96 species of birds, about a dozen below our long-term average. We
added two species new to the count.
I drove through heavy snow to try to find owls and other nocturnal birds
before dawn, and can confirm that, at least on December 16th, night
birds were not cooperative during adverse weather. Snow let up around
dawn, and we actually had pleasant conditions for most of the day. The
one inch of fresh snow began to melt by afternoon, and scoping and
listening for birds was possible.
There was a near absence of mountain birds this year. Some years, some
mountain species make it this far east, but the only "mountain" species
we got were Pine Siskin, in significant numbers, and a single mountain
race White-breasted Nuthatch. We did better with birds from the canyon
country to our south, with 13 Canyon Towhees found in multiple habitats
and locations by most parties, as well as Scaled Quail, Greater
Roadrunner, Canyon Wren and Curve-billed Thrasher. The highlight species
of the count was Rufous-crowned Sparrow, new to the count. Dave
Leatherman's party found and photographed not one, but two of these
unexpected vagrants below the dam at Lake Hasty.
There were lots of sparrows of many species, found mostly by Janeal
Thompson and Jane Stulp. Their best was a Lark Sparrow, also new to the
count, and one of very few CBC records of this species in Colorado.
Other highlight species included a photographed Lesser Goldfinch and a
photographed Northern Cardinal near the junction of the Purgatoire and
Arkansas Rivers, and a Winter Wren along the Arkansas River below the
dam at Lake Hasty.
The most frustrating part of the count was finding water birds. Although
water was mostly open on Lake Hasty and John Martin Reservoir, and there
were tens of thousands of Snow / Ross' Geese and thousands of Common
Goldeneyes, and all three species of merganser. Some usually-common,
expected ducks were found either as singles or not at all. Ditto for
gulls, with only Glaucous and Bonaparte's Gulls providing excitement.
The three species of loons and hundreds of Eared Grebes seen just one
week earlier had all gone awol. Still present were a few American White
Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants.
I apologize for the lateness of this report, and for any species I may
have inadvertently omitted. We do our compilation at the dinner
following the count, and the hard data is no longer in my hands.
Duane Nelson
Las Animas, Bent County, CO
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