I liked your post, Thomas, and I love the notables on your yard list. My answers to your questions are:
How long: 14 years. Style: Casual but attentive. When the same bear started returning to my feeders daily, I took them down for my neighbor's sake and the bear's safety. Lower numbers and variety since then, still highly interesting. How many species: 90 Rarest, or favorite species: American Three-toed Woodpecker. Surprising, lower than 7000' and this far east (just west of Larkspur), but I've since seen them and documented breeding in nearby Sandstone Ranch where I do surveys. Steep, forested foothills behind my neighborhood have brought many species down that are typically at higher elevations. Most memorable experience: A male American Goshawk in winter, pursuing a squirrel up, down, and around the trees. It was unsuccessful, in close quarters the squirrel looked to be far more in it's element. Location/habitat: At base of foothills, 6850', ponderosa pine / gambel oak. Dan Stringer Larkspur, CO On Monday, March 11, 2024 at 10:40:41 AM UTC-6 Thomas Heinrich wrote: > Hi all, > > Every now and then one of us will share the excitement of adding a rarity > or new species to a yard list, report yard list totals, or comment on local > trends. And some of the lists, and variety of species, are really > impressive (e.g. David Suddjian's, Gary Lefko's). > > Yellow Grosbeak, Pyrrhuloxia, Streak-backed Oriole, Long-billed Thrasher, > Costa's Hummingbird, Laurence's Goldfinch, and even Anhinga come to mind as > rarities that have shown up in or been observed from yards. (Perhaps the > recent Brambling, too?) > > As a pretty obsessive yard lister (i.e. binocs always on, camera ready > when outdoors, much of the time indoors too), I often wonder about others' > experience with yard-listing. > > How long have you been keeping your list? > What's your style of yard listing: casual, mainly feeder watching, > moderate, dedicated, obsessed? > How many species? > Rarest, or favorite species? > Most memorable experience? > Location/habitat: urban, suburban, rural, etc? > > And the big question: if we tallied up all our yard lists, how close to > Colorado's 520 species could we get? > > It seems likely that certain families would be less well-represented; > shorebirds, waterfowl, and gulls, for example. But with neighborhoods > lining bodies of water such as Boyd Lake, Lake Loveland, Marston Reservoir, > Jackson Lake, and MacIntosh Lake (in Boulder), among many others, many of > those species theoretically could have been counted on a yard list. Maybe > some lucky person living on the shores of Boyd Lake has Long-tailed Jaeger, > Slaty-backed Gull, and Garganey on their yard list! > > Wishing all good health, good birding, and an exciting Spring migration! > > --Thomas Heinrich > > > *My answers to the questions above*: > 15 years > Dedicated to obsessive > 152 species > Wood Thrush, Yellow-throated Warbler, N Cardinal, Common Redpoll, Bohemian > Waxwing > Watching spring raptor migration from the roof-top, 35 Broad-winged Hawks > among 130 raptors of 10 species on one high-flow day (4/18/2020) > Interface between suburban and open space, base of foothills, el. 5600' > > -- > Thomas Heinrich > Boulder, CO > tehei...@gmail.com > www.pbase.com/birdercellist > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds * 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/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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1c4da02e-c5f9-436e-b559-fa3f3bf723f2n%40googlegroups.com.
