[cobirds] Red Fox Sparrow at Ken Caryl, JeffCo

[David Suddjian]

A Red Fox Sparrow reappeared in my Ken Caryl yard first thing this morning,
last noted 12/14. Except for one day it has always appeared only in the dim
early light of 6:50-7:20 am, usually as the first bird of the morning. It
is there briefly while the light is too low to see well, and then it is not
around. I hope it settles into a more cooperative viewing pattern.  A
recording of today's morning greeting of call notes is on this checklist
.

David Suddjian
Littleton, CO

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[cobirds] Cherry Creek Res.

[Robert Righter]

Hi

 One Ad. Lesser-Black-backed Gull  amongst a flock of gulls on the very north 
central side of the res.

Bob Righter
Denver CO

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[cobirds] John Martin Reservoir CBC results

['DUANE NELSON' via Colorado Birds]

Birders, 


The John Martin Reservoir CBC took place on Monday, December 18th, postponed by 
a major storm event on the scheduled count day of December 14th. The 16 
participants were rewarded with a calm day with temperatures in the upper 50s 
and light winds. 108 species were tallied, for an average of 6.75 species added 
to the count for every participant. Truly, every participant makes a difference 
to count results here. This is an average count for this CBC. Many unusual 
birds were seen, with some first-time misses. 


New for the count were 3 LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS. Four shorebird species were 
found (Killdeer, Least Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs and the Dowitchers). 
Perhaps for the first time, Wilson's Snipe could not be found.


Nearly all expected duck species were found, some (like Red-breasted Merganser) 
in record numbers. "Puddle" ducks were conspicuous, especially on Lake Hasty. 
We often have a hard time finding them on this count. One Long-tailed Duck was 
found among thousands of other waterfowl on the Reservoir, but there were no 
Scoters. Notably absent was Wood Duck, missed for the first time (I have 
noticed increased hunter pressure at all of their favorite haunts). Snow Geese 
numbers were way down, with only 5000 on the reservoir. 


Only 4 species of gulls were located, well below average. Despite open water, 
there were no Loons, and only one Eared Grebe, not normal for this count. 


Land birds picked up some of the slack.


Three Ladder-backed Woodpeckers was a new high for the count. One party found a 
Say's Phoebe. There were single Gray Catbirds and Curve-billed Thrashers. The 
count tallied a Red-breasted Nuthatch for only the second time. Wrens 
highlighted the count with four Bewick's Wrens, one Winter Wren, and one 
CAROLINA WREN, for the second time on the count. We found no warblers, unusual 
for the count. 


Our counters are good at finding wintering sparrows. One party found six 
Savannah Sparrows. Another found a Lincoln's Sparrow. Four Harris' Sparrows was 
a high for the count. Song and American Tree Sparrows were seen in record low 
numbers, while White-crowned Sparrows seem to have taken over the planet here. 


The most popular bird on the count was a female EASTERN TOWHEE, seen and 
photographed by more than half the count participants. I have stopped feeding 
in the bottomlands it haunts, as it's so labor intensive, and passing trains 
and hordes of hunters make seeing it dangerous. Four Northern Cardinals were 
tallied at three separate locations, often near the Towhees. 


Blackbirds were well represented on the count, with all eight species of 
grackles, blackbirds as well as Brown-headed Cowbird present in good numbers. 
Six Rusty Blackbirds at a feedlot provided a new count high. 


Some year, maybe the stars will align, and land, water and mountain birds will 
all show up in the same year. We'll keep trying.


Duane Nelson
Las Animas, Bent Counnty, CO

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Re: [cobirds] Black Vulture near Del Norte

[Brandon]

Several birders are seeing this Black Vulture.  37.6344230, -106.4246145

Brandon Percival
Pueblo West, CO


On Tue, Dec 19, 2023 at 4:06 PM mvjo...@gmail.com 
wrote:

> I have just received a report with photo of a Black Vulture reported near
> Del Norte. It has been feeding on a deer carcass for about 3 weeks
> according to the report.
> I will try and get more details in case some of you want to chase. This is
> likely the first ever for the San Luis Valley and a rare species Statewide.
> Will keep you posted.  Seems so late as the Turkey Vultures vanished months
> ago.
>
> John Rawinski
> Monte Vista
>
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> .
>

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Re: [cobirds] Re: December Winter Raptor Survey, and sighting of a mystery buteo

[cogoshawk]

In 2012, Dick Schottler and I found a leucistic RTHA during the Denver CBC. 
It so happens that we found this bird in my neighborhood, which is on the 
western edge of the count circle.  I was fortunate enough to watch this 
bird, likely a female (she was bigger than any other RTHA that tried to 
consort with her) up through 2020 when she disappeared. One thing I noticed 
over time was that she became whiter and whiter, although her red tail 
feathers remained distinct.  I have a couple of photos if anyone is 
interested, but I have to say when I saw Ajit and Lisa's photos, my first 
thought was "wow, another leucistic red tail!" I also remember sometime 
back in the last year or two someone reporting on finding a leucistic RTHA 
corpse.  All of which suggests that leucism is a bit more common than we 
may tend to think.

Ed Furlong
Evergreen, CO

On Tuesday, December 19, 2023 at 3:57:52 PM UTC-7 Ajit Antony wrote:

> Hi Kevin and everyone else.
> I looked up Brian K Wheeler's 'Birds of Prey of the East' ( this is the 
> first of his 2 books that came out, and I bought it when I was living in 
> New York).
> He has a plate devoted to 'Albinos and other Variants,' Plate 34 where he 
> shows albinos and lucistic RTHA,  where he says in a picture of a Eastern 
> partial albino that "Albinism affects wings and dorsal body surface more 
> commonly than ventral body surface and tail." 
> A few weeks ago we were at East 126th Avenue doing a raptor survey and we 
> did see a leucistic RTHA which had large splotchy white patches on its 
> dorsum as it flew, correctly IDd by Liza my wife and partner in the winter 
> raptor surveys that we do.
> Ajit Antony
> Central Park, Colorado
>
> On Tue, Dec 19, 2023, 10:21 AM 'kevyg...@aol.com' via Colorado Birds <
> cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
>> Perhaps the mystery buteo is a leucistic Red-tailed Hawk?
>>
>> Kevin Corwin
>> Centennial, Arapahoe County
>>
>> On Monday, December 18, 2023 at 9:06:48 PM UTC-7 aiant...@gmail.com 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> December Winter Raptor Survey of Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR and DIA 
>>> Raptor Alley, with sighting of a mystery buteo
>>>
>>> This is our 2nd season doing volunteer Winter Raptor Surveys (WRS) for 
>>> the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) since moving to 
>>> Denver in July 2022. Prior to moving we did 4 WRS in New York State in the 
>>> Hudson Valley area since 2016. 
>>>
>>> Last winter season we did 3 surveys here – 1 in Denver and 2 in Boulder 
>>> in December 2022, and January and February 2023 for each route, following 
>>> it exactly, and roughly in the same week each month.
>>>
>>> This year we added another WRS in the area between Bennett and Jackson 
>>> Lake SP. We did that route a week ago with nothing special to report. It 
>>> may improve as winter progresses.
>>>
>>> Yesterday we completed the Rocky Mountain Arsenal to Barr Lake, and west 
>>> of Denver International Airport route for December 2023. 
>>>
>>> We saw and identified 78 Raptors, including
>>>
>>> Ferruginous Hawk  5, all adult
>>>
>>> Prairie Falcon 1, which attacked a Red-tailed Hawk as 
>>> well as a Northern Harrier
>>>
>>> Bald Eagle  25
>>>
>>> Northern Harrier 10
>>>
>>> American Kestrel5
>>>
>>> Red-tailed Hawk25, including 2 dark morph RT on Piccadilly 
>>> Road at Barr Lake, one perched and both in flight together. Spectacular.
>>>
>>> In addition we had a mystery buteo at 1st Creek at DEN Open Space 
>>> perched in a tree next to Peña Boulevard at 10:15 AM. When we finished our 
>>> survey and on the way back we could still see it (presumably the same 
>>> buteo) at the same location at 4:30 PM while driving south on Peña 
>>> Boulevard.
>>>
>>> Our eBird checklist for that location with images is: 
>>>
>>> https://ebird.org/checklist/S156663182 
>>>
>>> My notes written during the observation were: The tail was reddish with 
>>> multiple equal width bands, no sub-terminal band, with more reddish 
>>> distally than proximally, as well the left side of the tail was slightly 
>>> more red than the right side of the tail which was less red. There was a 
>>> thin eyeline on an otherwise white head with a black blob in the malar 
>>> area, no belly band but a few speckles in the flank area, white scapulars 
>>> and coverts. 
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>> Liza fancied a Krider's Hawk looking at the Raptor ID  app. Looking at 
>>> Brian Wheeler's Raptors of Western North America at the time, I felt it 
>>> could be a juvenile light morph Harlan's Hawk, except today reading more 
>>> about it in his Birds of Prey of the East and looking at the pictures, the 
>>> back is not stark black and white as his images show.
>>>
>>> I sent the images to the WRS coordinator for expert opinions. So far one 
>>> opinion is that it could be a Krider’s Hawk or an intergrade between 
>>> Krider’s and an Eastern borealis Red-tailed Hawk. 
>>>
>>> Any learned expert opinions with de