Greetings All
Sorry for the couple day delay. On Friday, 15 December, I left my home just after midnight to arrive just before 6 am at Cottonwood Canyon. The weather forecast was correct about snow (< 1 inch) but wrong about temp (10F) and wind (none, at all). Besides the very loud hooting of a GH Owl my arrival was greeted by sweet, absolute, wonderful silence. I worked from the "campground" parking area at Cottonwood to 1.1 miles further into Baca Canyon. At one point I could hear 5 GH Owls talking to each other, a pair of W Screech-Owls dueting, and the lovely (to my ears) screeching of a saw-whet. I went to my car and waited. Given the temps, I did not expect birds to be active terribly early. When I opened my car door, about 15 minutes before sunrise, I heard an explosion of noise. Mostly, there were finches: Cassin's, Am Goldfinches, Pine Siskins, and at least one Common Redpoll + robins, solitaires... It was magnificent. My heart thundered. My movements caused them to disburse, but as the sun (still hidden by cliffs), brought light to the canyon, a accipiter-like ek-ek-ek-ek-ek came from up a side canyon. I played a tape (never could figure out precisely what the bird was), and in came a party of five Stellar's Jays, screaming loudly, party hats raised in excitement. And so it went. It was brutally cold until the sun cast rays directly into the canyon. Moving from shade to sun was like moving from the dead of winter to mid-spring. But the real beauty: All was dusted in snow like powdered sugar cast upon a Christmas scene and there was absolute stillness and the sweet, total lack of human-made noise. When a chickadee flew the whir of its wings was accompanied by a cascade of powder from the branches. It was disorienting, as I could easily hear the movements of each bird, and there were so many, I just did not know which way to look first. Truly, it was a chilly version of heaven. Such peace. It was two hours before the existence of living humans was betrayed by the distant sound of a plane. So... the birds I saw a thrasher that I was able to see better in photos than through my bins (wish I had my scope out). It certainly seems to be a LONG-BILLED THRASHER, with much gray on head, collar and a long bill (amongst other marks). It was about 5 miles from the the "campground" as one goes along the Cottonwood Canyon Loop (past the Bighorn Sheep fields/interpretive sign, past the first house, around the corner and to the last (or nearly so) spot where a loop of the river swings to and from the road: tall wet grass, willows, brush, cottonwoods. The bird popped up in response to my pishing (lots of Song Sparrows and a few WC Sparrows). There was also a Curve-billed Thrasher at this location, and their bills were remarkably close in length (the CB Thrasher's bill being on the short side for that species, making me wonder about Bendire's, but it was a CB Thrasher, alas). At the "standard" Cottonwood Canyon location, highlights were truly the above-mentioned finches and jay, but I also saw Lincoln's Sparrow, Harris's Sparrow, GC Kinglets, and many Mountain Chickadees (surprisingly few nuthatches of any species) and Pinyon Jays. If I had David Dowell or Kathy M-D, or someone else with better ears than my own, I suspect that more species would've been recorded (pretty sure I heard BG Gnatcatcher 2 or 3 times). There were generally lots and lots of common species (Bewick's Wren, Spotted Towhee, juncos) I drove south from Cottonwood Canyon Loop on Baca County Road 8, where Kathy Mihm-Dunning had some success earlier in the month. There is a beautiful stretch of pinyon-juniper habitat here with a lot of pine. I had one Red Crossbill as the main highlight. No Pinyon Jays (plenty of scrub-jays), no chickadees, nuthatches, etc. The other highlight though was a flock of 4 WW Juncos. Kathy had many more. I've had flocks near Cottonwood in the past, and I do wonder if this is part of that subspecies (species?) main winter range. So, that is it. More time, could have been more poetic. The experienced deserved such. Good Luck and Good Birding Steve Mlodinow Longmont 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/16069f910e7-1725-29f70%40webjas-vad196.srv.aolmail.net. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
