All, Today's fieldwork took me to a few of the campgrounds along 67 North of Woodland Park and CR 31 in Park County. What started as a pretty standard day in the field ended up being one of the most memorable I've had so far this winter. Here are some of the highlights:
Douglas County: During my first point count this morning I heard a* Song Sparrow* calling from a cluster of willows in a riparian area along S Rainbow Falls Rd. This is only the second individual of this species that I've had in the area so far this year, the first being found only 2 days ago along FS 339 (Teller CO). A few days ago I had a stunning adult *Northern Goshawk* on one of the many two tracks off of Rainbow Falls Rd. Teller County: *Type 2 Red Crossbills* were everywhere at the Painted Rocks CG, which has generally been a very good place to find them. As I was heading south along 67, just a couple miles north of Woodland Park, a large flock of *Pinyon Jays* flew overhead, the first I've seen in this area. On my way back from Park County, I took a detour down 67 South and had a flock of ~50 *rosy-finches* fly over the road and into a grassy field on Cantiberry Rd. Scanning through them revealed mostly *Gray-crowned* (including a few Hepburn's) and a handful of *Brown-capped*. Park County: CR 31 was simply spectacular. I had fantastic numbers of both* type 2 and type 5 crossbills*. After my point counts, I hiked around the area looking for mated pairs of crossbills and heard a *Northern Pygmy-Owl* singing far in the distance. This being the species I most wanted to find this field season, I ran after it through deep snow, eventually finding the bird (still singing) getting mobbed by Pygmy Nuthatches, Mountain Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, White-breasted Nuthatches, and TONS of crossbills. Indeed, before even finding the owl, I found my 30th mated pair of crossbills of the year (a type 2 pair) giving 'toop' calls in response to the owl's presence. I also had my first* type 4 crossbills* of the season (2 females, 1 male) join in on the mobbing. I must have watched the owl fly from tree to tree, singing intermittently, for over an hour -- definitely one of the coolest life bird experiences I've ever had. After leaving the owl, I had 2 *Golden Eagles* (an adult and a juvenile) soaring together for the rest of my stay. Other fun birds here included a *Merlin*, 2 *Clark's Nutcrackers *(they seem to have all but disappeared from the Woodland Park area, where they were abundant in January and early February), and 4 *American Tree Sparrows*. A couple of random notes: yesterday on CR 300 in Teller, I had two* Steller's Jays* and a* Dark-eyed Junco* in Lodgepole, the first time this winter I've had either species away from Ponderosa in this area. *Brown Creepers* really started becoming abundant (and singing) in Lodgepole on this road a couple weeks ago. Good birding, -Cody Porter (Currently in Woodland Park, CO -- originally from Laramie, WY) -- 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/c0616fb7-a5b8-42cc-8c4d-7cedb872ad12%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
