Very interesting discussion! Thank you Mr. Heinrich for initiating this! My family and I lived near Paonia for 13 years (2004-2017) in Delta County. My list is all historical information since I moved to Wyoming. We owned 10 acres that crossed the North Fork of the Gunnison River at the northwest corner of the property at approximately 5500' elevation. Lots of large cottonwood trees (narrowleaf, Fremont, and hybrids) and dense understory of buffalo berry, box elder, willow etc along the river. Also, a small marsh and beaver pond where we saw River Otters a couple times. I received a grant to plant one acre of shrubs along the river which was fun to watch grow during the years we were there.
Dedicated birding 192 species Lots of favorites and some rare (in order most recent to oldest): Favorite: We managed a profitable small farm (everything we grew was legal!) with five greenhouses that we built ourselves named Rain Crow Farm after the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. We heard and saw cuckoos frequently during the summer months and I eventually was able to start a small project when I worked for Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory/Bird Conservancy of the Rockies conducting surveys on the west slope of Colorado. We were lucky to confirm breeding near Hotchkiss and found an active nest in 2008. The species was listed as "threatened" by the USFWS west of the continental divide in 2014. Rare or unusual species list: Magnolia Warbler Common Ground Dove (6th state record) Nashville Warbler Black Phoebe Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Long-billed Curlew Bohemian Waxwing (irruption winter of 2013) Common Redpoll (irruption winter of 2012) American Goshawk Canada Jay (unusual away from spruce-fir habitat) Indigo Bunting White-winged Dove Northern Pygmy-Owl Black-and-white Warbler Eastern Bluebird Juniper Titmouse (lots of PJ nearby) Willow Flycatcher Gray Flycatcher Yellow-throated Vireo Black-throated Gray Warbler Sage Thrasher Harris's Sparrow Virginia Rail Pinyon Jay Rose-breasted Grosbeak Cassin's Vireo Purple Martin (breed on Grand Mesa nearby) Black Swift Brown-capped Rosy-Finch American Dipper Bewick's Wren Black-crowned Night Heron Bobolink Lark Bunting Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch White-throated Sparrow Pygmy Nuthatch Swamp Sparrow American Redstart Dickcissel (not sure how many west slope records there are but one was singing a couple days in June of 2006 near our pasture) Band-tailed Pigeon (flocks would fly over the river often) Green Heron Lewis's Woodpecker (not at all rare in this area, bred in my front yard most years we were there) Olive-sided Flycatcher Barn Owl Ash-throated Flycatcher Mammals: Mountain Lion (killed a couple of our goats and I saw one once while birding along the river), River Otter, Mink, Black Bear (killed many of our and neighbors chickens) Most memorable experience? Seeing and hearing a Vaux's Swift on 5/3/2007 near the river. No photo or recording was obtained so the record was not accepted by CBRC. Good Birding! Jason Beason (Currently in Lander, WY where my yard list is up to 129 species!) On Thu, Mar 14, 2024 at 1:02 PM Jeff Kehoe <jeff.ke...@gmail.com> wrote: > I'm in Larimer County on the Big Thompson River. > > 7 years > moderate birder - lots of feeders year round > 83 species > most memorable - wave of migrating Western Tanagers in May stopped by a > snowstorm > foothills riparian habitat - 1 acre > > Some Favorites - always hard > ----------------------- > American Dipper - regular visitor > Rose-breasted Grosbeak > Evening Grosbeak > Red Crossbill > Indigo Bunting > Green-tailed Towhee > Red-headed Woodpecker > Great Egret > Canyon Wren - picking bugs from spider webs on the porch > > 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/44365dc4-fc65-4115-82c9-d594c3f36cc5n%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/44365dc4-fc65-4115-82c9-d594c3f36cc5n%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- -- 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/CAJk9VVG48CVx2qV5jnrA3c1dP4U5dj-8N%2BXWqO7gEkmiNXtmrQ%40mail.gmail.com.
