As I’ve done the past few years, I surveyed two (2) Breeding Bird Survey
(BBS) routes in Rio Blanco County this year (23 & 24 Jun’23). These two
routes cover differing habitat types typical to northwestern Colorado. The
Angora transect east of Rangely cuts through lower elevation small
pinyon-juniper woods with interspersed sagebrush and other scrub (good for
GRAY FLYCATCHERs & GRAY VIREOs), then continues to higher elevation large
pinyon-juniper stands with some dense serviceberry/mountain mahogany covered
hillsides (think DUSKY FLYCATCHERs & PLUMBEOUS VIREOs) with a swing through
the White River valley for some lowland species. The Yellowjacket Pass
route east of Meeker runs through sagebrush and agricultural lowlands on
either end of the survey, but climbs over serviceberry/oak brush/mountain
mahogany highlands with cottonwood and willow lined wet draws (on to
CORDILLERAN/WILLOW FLYCATCHERs & WARBLING VIREOs) plus a large pond with a
relatively extensive cattail marsh halfway through for some spice.
The high snowfall this winter in the northwestern part of our State was
evident with very tall hayfields (almost Sandhill Crane height-story here if
interested), filled ditches, and a still full to the brim White River.
However, things have begun to dryout such that anecdotyally I’d consider the
area “normal” when it comes to habitat condition. While I got somewhat late
starts (~½ hour) both days due to operator error with my phone alarm – old
dude & tech – I don’t believe this materially affected data as both routes
returned long range averages in diversity and total individuals with no
obvious misses. This said, total species observed dropped to 81 combined
over both routes from 89 species the previous two years. In addition, total
indiviuals recorded dropped to 1,081 this year from an average of 1,334 the
last two years, but thinking 2021 & 2022 may have been abnormal highs for
some reason – we’ll see next year.
While nothing too exciting was encountered this year, the pair of CASSIN’S
KINGBIRDs found back in 2021 continue to nest (seen nest building near road;
Rio Blonco CR 122) in the same spot on the Angora route which is still a
very good bird in this part of the State. Although total individuals
returned to average levels overall, a few species are having big years up
there, notably LARK & BREWER’S SPARROWs as well as VIRGINIA’S &
BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERs. In addition, EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE, GRAY
CATBIRD, and LESSER GOLDFINCH continue their expansions with SPOTTED TOWHEEs
increasing numbers rapidly as we see happening along the Front Range.
My “summary” seems to have run a little long this year, but if you’d like
more information about any of this, please let me know separately.
Good Birding & Happy 4th of July,
Doug
Currently Coeur d’Alene, ID
Yellowjacket Pass & Angora BBS
2023 Summery Results
Yellowjacket
Angora
Species
6/23/2023
6/24/2023
Cinnamon Teal
3
American Wigeon
2
Mallard
14
4
Pied-billed Grebe
1
Eurasian Collared-Dove
1
2
Mourning Dove
14
16
White-throated Swift
8
Black-chinned Hummingbird
5
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
6
1
Sora
1
American Coot
1
Sandhill Crane
2
Killdeer
3
3
Wilson's Snipe
1
Great Blue Heron
2
Turkey Vulture
9
Sharp-shinned Hawk
1
Bald Eagle
2
Red-tailed Hawk
4
Northern Flicker - "Red-shafted"
5
3
Western Wood-Pewee
3
Willow Flycatcher
1
Gray Flycatcher
7
Dusky Flycatcher
1
4
Cordilleran Flycatcher
4
Say's Phoebe
2
1
Ash-throated Flycatcher
6
Cassin's Kingbird
2
Western Kingbird
12
1
Gray Vireo
3
Plumbeous Vireo
8
Warbling Vireo
8
Pinyon Jay
2
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay
2
Black-billed Magpie
21
4
American Crow
27
Common Raven
6
4
Black-capped Chickadee
1
Juniper Titmouse
2
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
4
1
Tree Swallow
5
Violet-green Swallow
6
Barn Swallow
4
3
Cliff Swallow
1
52
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
15
Rock Wren
13
House Wren
7
2
Bewick's Wren
4
European Starling
8
15
Gray Catbird
2
3
Sage Thrasher
4
Mountain Bluebird
4
20
Hermit Thrush
2
American Robin
36
4
House Sparrow
4
House Finch
3
4
Cassin's Finch
1
Lesser Goldfinch
3
American Goldfinch
4
Chipping Sparrow
22
Brewer's Sparrow
13
45
Lark Sparrow
2
26
Vesper Sparrow
29
27
Song Sparrow
14
3
Green-tailed Towhee
28
32
Spotted Towhee
34
47
Yellow-breasted Chat
1
Yellow-headed Blackbird
2
1
Western Meadowlark
33
13
Bullock's Oriole
2
6
Red-winged Blackbird
32
35
Brown-headed Cowbird
27
7
Brewer's Blackbird
23
Orange-crowned Warbler
3
4
Virginia's Warbler
8
18
MacGillivray's Warbler
3
Common Yellowthroat
4
Yellow Warbler
26
Black-throated Gray Warbler
20
Black-headed Grosbeak
5
1
Lazuli Bunting
3
2
Total Species
61
55
Total Individuals
543
538
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
* All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird
species and location in the subject line when appropriate
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/CFO/Membership/
---
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 view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/00ef01d9aec9%24e00e3fb0%24a02abf10%24%40frontier.com.
