Re: [cobirds] History - Old bird checklists

[Diana Beatty]

I have a copy of The Birds of El Paso County, Colorado by Charles Aiken and
Edward Warren from 1914.  It even has some photos in it,  It is a two
volume set published by Colorado College and is interesting reading for the
changes in species designations and names and also a little insight to what
is there or not there compared to now.  Just as an example, it mentions
Swallow-tailed Kite, two samples from to Aiken in 1877, one shot in
Colorado Springs and the other at Manitou Lake in Teller County.  For
Mississippi Kite, it reports one record from summer 1873 in Deadman's
Canyon (now on Fort Carson).  Mississippi Kite started breeding in the
county in 2011 and is currently growing in numbers.

As another example, it mentions Red-headed Woodpecker as a common summer
resident in the southern portions of the county and even up at Lake Moraine
on Pikes Peak and Monument Valley Park in downtown Colorado Springs.
Currently, Red-headed Woodpeckers are rarely reported in the county - not
every year anymore, I'd say - the only reports I recall in the past several
years were single sites  at Chico Basin and Fort Carson.

Another:  Blue Jay is listed as an accidental visitor, with only one
occurrence in the county, in 1902 in the Springs.  The account says that
Aiken took one in 1905 in Limon but that in general there are almost no
Blue Jays west of the Colorado/Kansas border.

Long story short - it is fascinating reading!

Diana Beatty
El Paso County

On Fri, Sep 10, 2021 at 2:52 PM Marty W  wrote:

> Jared et al,
>
> What a fascinating 1917 Denver checklist (along with his preface) by W.H.
> Bergtold! Thank you so much for sharing it, Jared. He notes in the preface
> or intro notes how different a (barren) place Denver had been on his first
> visit in 1881, from what it had become by 1917, enriched by all the
> irrigation and planted trees--with the resulting increase in bird diversity
> and numbers. An observation applicable to cities/communities all along the
> Front Range and eastern plains obviously--and what if he could see our bird
> lists now?!!
>
> I once owned a copy of Elliott Coues' *Birds of the Colorado River
> Valley, Part First,* published in 1878 [
> https://archive.org/details/birdsofcoloradov00coue], which had been
> discarded by Princeton University (and sent to me after moving to CO in
> 1974 by my brother back east)--but this copy had been re-bound in Princeton
> (sometime in the late 19th century) with once-blank journal
> pages interspersed that had been mostly all filled out by one Walter Scott,
> who had travelled west to Colorado from Princeton for a couple birding
> trips sometime in the 1880's. So this was his annotated, handwritten &
> original checklist bound inside the birding guidebook he used during his
> trips. Very fascinating reading, especially alongside Coues' text!**
> Unfortunately that book was one of so many other items (including my own
> yet-digitized checklists from 1966-2012 that perished when our house turned
> to ash in the Waldo Canyon fire. So yes, of course and PLEASE all you
> fellow "old" longtime birders, do get your invaluable & truly priceless
> checklists digitized asap, by someone, whether in ebird or other formats,
> so they stand a better chance of being part of a (maybe) lasting public
> database, for both the research and pleasure of future others!
>
>  **As far as I can tell Coues never did any *Part Second* or *Third*,
> tho' he lived until 1899 and was prolific in his
> ornithologist/naturalist/and other writings to the end. [
> https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Coues%2C+Elliott%22=-date=4
> ] *Part   First* of his CO River Valley bird guide includes only many
> of the passerines--only 140 species *not* including the doves,
> hummingbirds, owls, hawks & other raptors, kingfishers, swifts,
> woodpeckers, icterids, corvids, grosbeaks, sparrows or finches.
>
> Elliott Coues, by the way, was a co-founder of the AOU, and like Bergtold
> was also vocally (and in writing) adamantly opposed to the recently
> imported and "cultivated" European House Sparrows. See his monograph "The
> Ineligibility of the European House Sparrow in America," 1878 [
> https://archive.org/details/jstor-2447786/mode/2up]. His gloves are off
> and his cultural biases flaring ("*so far as I am aware, there is not a
> scientific ornithologist in America, among those who have expressed any
> decided opinion, who are in favor of the wretched interlopers which we have
> so thoughtlessly introduced, and played with, and cuddled, like a parcel of
> hysterical, slate- pencil-eating school-girls*."). Fun reading.
>
> Interestingly, he also wrote a short monograph in late 1876, "The
> Destruction of Birds by Telegraph Wire," foreshadowing our similar
> modern-day concerns with tall buildings, glass windows, and poorly situated
> wind turbines. He was on an October horseback trip between Denver and
> Cheyenne WY, and recorded over several miles the number & type of dead

[cobirds] Calliope Hummingbird - DU (Denver)

[Jared Del Rosso]

For a lot of reasons, DU has a relatively short eBird checklist. So 
anything that's not our most common, year-round birds is news to me when I 
see it on campus. 

A hummingbird that I take for a Calliope (my one photo shows a squarish 
tail shorter than its wings and my general impression is that it's small, 
even for a hummingbird) was feeding at Agastache rupestris ("Sunset 
Hyssop") in the xeric garden behind the Sie Complex.

Even in the heat of noon, the patch of agastache smelled of licorice. What 
a wonderful plant.

Soon, perhaps, a Rock Wren will visit the "sunken," dry garden in the Iliff 
parking lot, as one has a few years going now. It's such a strange place to 
find a migrating bird -- a 20-30 foot long planting, maybe 10 feet wide, 
maybe 6 or 7 feet deep, with rocks (appropriately enough for the bird) in 
the middle of a parking lot. 

- Jared Del Rosso
Centennial, CO 

-- 
-- 
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?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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/c761326e-7286-439d-bf9d-f2f7de6aebefn%40googlegroups.com.

[cobirds] Bird Conservancy of the Rockies - Barr Lake Banding Report, 9/10/21

[Colin Woolley]

We are holding steady at 20-something birds per day, today with 25 newly 
banded birds of 8 species. The highlight was a young Townsend's Solitaire, 
a less-than-annual bird in our nets at Barr Lake. Here are the totals:

Wilson's Warbler - 15
Orange-crowned Warbler - 2
MacGillivray's Warbler - 1
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Western Flycatcher - 1
House Wren - 3
Townsend's Solitaire - 1
'Gambel's' White-crowned Sparrow - 2

We are open 6 days a week, weather permitting through October 23.  Closed 
Mondays.  Click here 
 to register to 
visit - we are offering one-hour slots (up to 12 visitors at a time); 
7:30-8:30 most weekdays, and 8-9, 9-10, and 10-11 on weekends.  Come visit!

Colin Woolley
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies


-- 
-- 
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?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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/8c60ac3f-f46b-4b47-8e8d-96985ee55e4cn%40googlegroups.com.

Re: [cobirds] History - Old bird checklists

[Marty W]

Jared et al,

What a fascinating 1917 Denver checklist (along with his preface) by W.H.
Bergtold! Thank you so much for sharing it, Jared. He notes in the preface
or intro notes how different a (barren) place Denver had been on his first
visit in 1881, from what it had become by 1917, enriched by all the
irrigation and planted trees--with the resulting increase in bird diversity
and numbers. An observation applicable to cities/communities all along the
Front Range and eastern plains obviously--and what if he could see our bird
lists now?!!

I once owned a copy of Elliott Coues' *Birds of the Colorado River Valley,
Part First,* published in 1878 [
https://archive.org/details/birdsofcoloradov00coue], which had been
discarded by Princeton University (and sent to me after moving to CO in
1974 by my brother back east)--but this copy had been re-bound in Princeton
(sometime in the late 19th century) with once-blank journal
pages interspersed that had been mostly all filled out by one Walter Scott,
who had travelled west to Colorado from Princeton for a couple birding
trips sometime in the 1880's. So this was his annotated, handwritten &
original checklist bound inside the birding guidebook he used during his
trips. Very fascinating reading, especially alongside Coues' text!**
Unfortunately that book was one of so many other items (including my own
yet-digitized checklists from 1966-2012 that perished when our house turned
to ash in the Waldo Canyon fire. So yes, of course and PLEASE all you
fellow "old" longtime birders, do get your invaluable & truly priceless
checklists digitized asap, by someone, whether in ebird or other formats,
so they stand a better chance of being part of a (maybe) lasting public
database, for both the research and pleasure of future others!

 **As far as I can tell Coues never did any *Part Second* or *Third*,
tho' he lived until 1899 and was prolific in his
ornithologist/naturalist/and other writings to the end. [
https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Coues%2C+Elliott%22=-date=4
] *Part   First* of his CO River Valley bird guide includes only many
of the passerines--only 140 species *not* including the doves,
hummingbirds, owls, hawks & other raptors, kingfishers, swifts,
woodpeckers, icterids, corvids, grosbeaks, sparrows or finches.

Elliott Coues, by the way, was a co-founder of the AOU, and like Bergtold
was also vocally (and in writing) adamantly opposed to the recently
imported and "cultivated" European House Sparrows. See his monograph "The
Ineligibility of the European House Sparrow in America," 1878 [
https://archive.org/details/jstor-2447786/mode/2up]. His gloves are off and
his cultural biases flaring ("*so far as I am aware, there is not a
scientific ornithologist in America, among those who have expressed any
decided opinion, who are in favor of the wretched interlopers which we have
so thoughtlessly introduced, and played with, and cuddled, like a parcel of
hysterical, slate- pencil-eating school-girls*."). Fun reading.

Interestingly, he also wrote a short monograph in late 1876, "The
Destruction of Birds by Telegraph Wire," foreshadowing our similar
modern-day concerns with tall buildings, glass windows, and poorly situated
wind turbines. He was on an October horseback trip between Denver and
Cheyenne WY, and recorded over several miles the number & type of dead
birds (mostly horned larks) found underneath the recently strung telegraph
wires stretching along much of his route, and from that projected a rough
estimate that "...many hundred thousand birds are yearly killed by the
telegraph..." [https://archive.org/details/jstor-2448602/page/n1/mode/2up]

Anyways... Ornithological history is great stuff and will only be enriched
by having the records of Hugh and other local & travelling birders
preserved. And as Ted Floyd recommends (as far as ebird entries) be SURE to
include context & comments from those original checklists/journals! It's
not just the species & numbers.

Good birding, researching & data-entering.

Marty Wolf
NW CO Springs

On Mon, Sep 6, 2021 at 3:13 PM Jared Del Rosso 
wrote:

> I want to just agree with everything said already about Hugh's checklists.
>
> And also, while we've been on the subject of historical checklists, I want
> to add this -- if anyone would like a bit of fun, check out the below
> article from 1917 by W.H. Bergtold, in which he describes his sightings
> around Denver (mainly Cheesman Park, where he resided). I encountered this
> essay several years ago, when I was also birding Cheesman. I particularly
> appreciated his note that Poorwills are "Infrequent migrants" to Cheesman
> Park, a fact several of us relearned about a full century after Bergtold
> documented it. But most tantalizing is his note that Long-eared Owls are
> "Frequent visitors to all the parks."
>
> Find the article here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4154774. It should be
> readily available, as it's public domain...
>
> Bergtold also published 

[cobirds] Boulder Audubon Meeting - Colorado's New State Park

[Sydney Rayl]

*BCAS Meeting! Colorado's Newest State Park: Fishers Peak State Park 
Biodiversity Study*

*Join Boulder County Audubon Society and Pam Smith on Tuesday, September 
28,* to learn about Fishers Peak State Park (FPSP) - Colorado’s newest and 
2nd largest state park with 19,200 acres. Located 5.5 miles southeast of 
the town of Trinidad, FPSP officially became part of the State Park System 
in October of 2020. Fishers Peak rises along the park’s eastern boundary 
and, at 9,633 feet (2,936 m), it is the highest point east of its longitude 
in the United States and an iconic landmark for the region. The FPSP 
includes many rugged undeveloped areas with steep cliffs, numerous streams, 
ponds, meadows, woodlands, and both mature and mixed-aged forests. This 
property was formerly known as the Crazy French Ranch and has been private 
for over 100 years.

Pam Smith is a field botanist and as a project investigator for CNHP, she 
conducts botanical surveys and monitoring for rare plants, plant 
communities, wetlands, and wetland condition assessments. Visit our website 
 to learn more!

*When: Tuesday, September 28, 7:15 pm, *with socializing starting at 7:00.

*Where:* The location of this meeting will be determined at a date closer 
to the event. It may be held online or in person. If held in person the 
location is the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder, 5001 Pennsylvania 
Avenue, off 55th St. between Arapahoe and Baseline.

*We hope to see you there!*

-- 
-- 
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?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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit 
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/273fc389-8e63-4e58-9e6f-b10b59885013n%40googlegroups.com.