While I shared a few anecdotes from the field last week, thought I'd provide
a brief summary of results from two Breeding Bird Surveys (BBS) I ran over
in Rio Blanco County during the last week of June (29-30 June'22). The
Angora route just east of Rangely primarily runs through pinyon/juniper
hills with some bottom lands along the White River. The Yellowjacket Pass
transect runs northeast from just outside Meeker and is mainly agriculture
lowlands interspersed with sagebrush, but does climb up and over some
Gambel's Oak (David, please note the spelling)/serviceberry highlands with
cottonwood and willow lined wet draws.
Vegetation conditions over in this part of the West Slope were far improved
compared to last year at this time as the region experienced a rebound in
precipitation amounts this Spring - actually got drizzled on both days of my
runs, refreshing! Hay fields were still green and tall, irrigation ditches
and the White River were full, and even the sagebrush had a green tinge.
While I wouldn't call the area recovered from the exceedingly dry conditions
experienced these past years, it was good to see some vibrancy. This also
translated into good bird activity on both routes with high numbers of
individuals detected compared to last year, which was also a good year. The
diversity of breeders in Rio Blanco County is always fun as many species we
just don't get regularly over here on the Front Range are active and
visible. I had a total of ninety (90) species combined on the two routes,
including a couple noted outside the prescribed time limits. All of these
are likely breeders except one, a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, and were active with
most showing some form of breeding behavior.
I'll be uploading results to eBird at some point (USGS has the official data
already), but in the meantime my two lists are summarized below. If you
have any questions on either location or any specific species, please let me
know separately.
Good BBSing,
Doug
Currently Denver
Yellowjacket Pass & Angora BBS
2022 Summery Results
Angora
Yellowjacket
Species
6/29/2022
6/30/2022
Cinnamon Teal
4
Gadwall
2
American Wigeon
6
Mallard
2
14
Ring-necked Duck
6
Lesser Scaup
1
Dusky Grouse
1
Pied-billed Grebe
1
Eurasian Collared-Dove
3
1
Mourning Dove
18
19
Common Nighthawk
2
3
White-throated Swift
1
Black-chinned Hummingbird
1
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
2
Sora
2
American Coot
9
Sandhill Crane
5
Killdeer
3
Wilson's Snipe
4
Great Blue Heron
2
Turkey Vulture
3
Osprey
1
Golden Eagle
2
Red-tailed Hawk
3
Northern Flicker - "Red-shafted"
1
5
American Kestrel
2
Willow Flycatcher
2
Gray Flycatcher
4
Dusky Flycatcher
2
3
Cordilleran Flycatcher
5
Say's Phoebe
1
4
Ash-throated Flycatcher
9
Cassin's Kingbird
2
Western Kingbird
3
11
Eastern Kingbird
2
Gray Vireo
6
Plumbeous Vireo
4
2
Warbling Vireo
5
Loggerhead Shrike
1
Pinyon Jay
178
Black-billed Magpie
12
78
American Crow
33
Common Raven
2
15
Mountain Chickadee
8
Juniper Titmouse
5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
5
Tree Swallow
16
Violet-green Swallow
12
Barn Swallow
7
Cliff Swallow
35
50
Bushtit
3
White-breasted Nuthatch
2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
16
4
Rock Wren
7
3
House Wren
9
Marsh Wren
1
Bewick's Wren
8
European Starling
55
2
Gray Catbird
2
16
Sage Thrasher
1
7
Northern Mockingbird
1
Mountain Bluebird
25
3
Hermit Thrush
2
American Robin
3
47
House Finch
3
Lesser Goldfinch
1
American Goldfinch
5
Chipping Sparrow
6
3
Brewer's Sparrow
17
18
Lark Sparrow
10
Vesper Sparrow
16
55
Savannah Sparrow
3
Song Sparrow
2
18
Green-tailed Towhee
32
47
Spotted Towhee
44
33
Yellow-breasted Chat
2
Western Meadowlark
5
45
Bullock's Oriole
1
1
Red-winged Blackbird
30
43
Brown-headed Cowbird
19
Brewer's Blackbird
1
58
Orange-crowned Warbler
1
2
Virginia's Warbler
11
15
MacGillivray's Warbler
1
Common Yellowthroat
5
Yellow Warbler
36
Black-throated Gray Warbler
6
Western Tanager
4
Black-headed Grosbeak
5
Lazuli Bunting
3
Total Species
57
65
Total Individuals
640
847
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