[cobirds] Re: Bohemian Waxwings - Arapahoe

[Susanna Donato]

Thanks for this detailed description! I walked the canal here this 
afternoon (1 pm-ish) across the High Line Canal Trail from Blackmer Lake. I 
could hear the waxwings and spent a long time trying to get a good glimpse 
of them and some photos. There were at least 4-6 Bohemian waxwings with the 
group. Merlin picked them out from the cedar waxwings, and I got very clear 
views through binoculars of the Bohemians, which were hanging out together 
high up in a slim cottonwood where it bent and there was a lot of brush. I 
too saw one bird offering something to another. I would have thought I 
imagined it in all the brush except that you had noted the same behavior. 
(Merlin also thought it heard a white-throated sparrow along the trail in 
this area, but I didn't see it.)

On Wednesday, January 4, 2023 at 12:58:13 PM UTC-7 jared.d...@gmail.com 
wrote:

> On January 1, a sharp-eyed participant in the urban Denver CBC spotted a 
> Bohemian Waxwing amid a large flock of Cedars along the High Line Canal in 
> Cherry Hills Village in Arapahoe County. (Apologies to that person -- I 
> don't have a list of participants and so can't credit them.) This allowed 
> all 15 of us participating in the count to get looks at the bird, a lifer 
> for many on the trip.
>
> I returned to the Canal in Cherry Hills Village today on a walking break. 
> There are many, many waxwings feeding on buckthorn (and, no doubt, helping 
> reseed it). I encountered a Bohemian among them, south of Quincy Ave, along 
> the Canal near Blackmer Hall of Kent Denver School. 
>
> I had only brief views of the Bohemian, before losing it among the brush 
> and Cedars. Not only are waxwing moving along the canal, from spot to spot, 
> they're also incredibly active wherever they stop. They work the ground 
> (for water) to the canopy of cottonwoods (for sun and melting snow, it 
> seems). So birders who hope to find the Bohemian would be well-served 
> bringing either several other birders with them, the better to check all 
> the waxwings, or packing all the patience and, better yet, dumb luck they 
> can find.
>
> I enjoyed watching the Cedar Waxwings drinking from melting snow, off 
> cottonwood and pine branches. At one point, I saw one waxwing offer either 
> food (amid the pines -- insects?) or water (in the form of melting snow) to 
> another. It seems late for a parent to tend to young. It seems early for 
> one of a pair to tend to the other. I skimmed *Birds of the World*, but 
> didn't see anything about this sort of behavior in winter. (Admittedly, I 
> didn't read the entry exhaustively.) Has anyone else noticed this? No 
> pictures, as the birds were in the shadows of pines.
>
> There is an incredible amount of buckthorn spread out along the Canal, but 
> there do seem to be fewer drupes on the plants than on January 1. The whole 
> portion of Canal -- from Colorado to the edge of Kent Denver -- is worth 
> investigating. (Cassin's Finches have also been found on this portion of 
> trail lately.) So too is the riparian line that emerges from the southern 
> edge of Blackmer Lake. In years past, starlings, waxwings, robins, and 
> sparrows (in impressive numbers) visited the buckthorn there. 
>
> At home, in Centennial, a White-throated Sparrow continues in my yard. An 
> American Tree Sparrow has also visited, along with two White-crowned 
> Sparrows, several Spotted Towhees, and many juncos.
>
> - Jared Del Rosso
> Centennial, CO
>

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Re: [cobirds] Barr Lake CBC results

[Cinnamon Bergeron]

Wow! That was actually a LOT of birds!
33,914? Amazing!
Especially the number of Bald Eagles. 礪
Nice job everyone!
Cinnamon Bergeron

On Fri, Jan 6, 2023 at 2:15 PM Colin Woolley <
colin.wool...@birdconservancy.org> wrote:

> We held our Barr Lake CBC on Jan 2nd. It was a cold, foggy morning with
> limited visibility, but at least it wasn't snowing during the count! All
> things considered, we had a great day and were able to see plenty of birds
> despite the challenging weather (we couldn't even see Barr Lake for most of
> the count!).
>
>- We had 23 participants divided among 9 groups.
>- We tallied 33,914 individual birds of 69 species. We average about
>70 species so it was great to be right about at the average, despite the
>weather conditions.
>- About 75% of those individuals were Cackling or Canada Geese, or
>European Starlings, again pretty typical for this count circle.
>- We had one new species for the count circle, a Golden-crowned
>Sparrow!
>- We had an all-time high of 476 American Robin, more than the first
>20 years of this count circle *combined *(1981-2000)*.*
>- Raptors were low across the board, particularly Great Horned Owls
>with just one seen, tied for lowest (1991). This was likely driven by the
>low visibility than anything else.
>- We saw 72 Bald Eagles, considering the limited visibility this was
>higher than expected!
>
> Thanks to all who participated in this count, we hope to see you again
> next year and we're always welcome to new participants as well!
>
> Cheers,
> Colin Woolley
> Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
> Barr Lake CBC Compiler
>
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