I enjoyed another lovely day in the Park yesterday, focusing mostly on the southern tier of the county. Stops in the Lake George region had three *Northern Pygmy-Owls* in Ponderosa forest. The species is quite regular in the southeast at part of the county. Lots and lots of of* Red Crossbills* in areas with good cone crops in the Lake George region. Overwhelmingly Type 2 were noted this date, but Type 5 in a few spots and Type 4 in one spot. Open water along the South Platte near Lake George had some diving ducks, and a *Belted Kingfisher* at the downstream side of town was my first in Park County in about 2 months. *American Robins* had returned to the area in small numbers. Lake George itself is frozen.
At CR 98 near CR 61 I watched a movement of *Clark's Nutcrackers *and *Steller's Jays* as they traversed along a slope, totaling a nice 44 Clark's and 146 Steller's. The movement lasted only 3 minutes. First none, then a flow of birds, then nothing again. Working County Roads 403, 100 and 71 I began to encounter many *Mountain Bluebirds*. Some were flocks and some were pairs or singles. I had over 350 for the day. And just one *Western Bluebird* - a slightly early male along CR 71. A male *Williamson's Sapsucker* along CR 100 was very early! A few *Pinyon Jays* were along CR 411. CR 71 also had my first *Loggerhead Shrike* of the season and my first* Killdeer *in Park County since last fall. The shrike looked like it was hunting bluebirds! Areas of Gambel oak and pinyon pine along CR 104 near the county line has some *Western Scrub-Jays*, A *Northern Goshawk* was over the Park / Fremont line at CR 104, and nearby Highway 9 had another *Loggerhead Shrike* in Fremont just south of Park. Along Highway 59 climbs over a ridge between Saddle Mountain and Thirtynine Mile Mountain and passes through spruce/fir forest and here I had a delightful pair of *Gray Jays *and an *Am. Three-toed Woodpecker*. The Gray Jays responded to my pygmy-owl imitation by coming in very close, and one seemed to be giving own funky version of a pygmy-owl call! The Gray Jays occupied a gap in eBird occurrences for that part of the county, and I'll have to check if I' had the Three-toed in that area before... don't think so. Eleven Mile Reservoir was all frozen except for a small area at the northwest corner at the South Platte inlet. This area had a nice assortment of waterbirds, including 11 species of ducks, with 1 *Long-tailed Duck* and 4 *Greater Scaup* as the highlights. A *Double-crested Cormorant* was early, and a pile of gulls at the ice edge included 128 *California*, 1 *Herring* and 2 *Ring-billed*. An adult *Peregrine Falcon* was there, too. The ice-covered central part of the lake had 1 *Great Blue Heron* standing on a little islet, marooned in a sea of white...waiting, waiting. An almost tardy *Northern Shrike* was along CR 59 near Hartsel. It appeared to be hunting Horned Larks. A male *Am. Kestrel *along Hwy 285 near Buffalo Creek was the only one I saw, and was likely the same arrival I noted on Feb 24. Three *Rough-legged Hawks *were along Hwy 24 near Antero Reservoir, and one was near Jefferson. Late afternoon stops at Fairplay and Jefferson had a handful of *Rosy-Finches *at the former, and a better flock at the latter. David Suddjian Littleton, CO -- 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 post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAGj6RoqRo1zVNXrgK%3DapqtThSGxFN5ULNG5%3DOEZpaG-qkCV0vQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
