[cobirds] Black Forest Christmas bird count

            Our Black Forest count tallied 45 species, 2,202 individual birds.

            We had more observers than any other count since Dick Beidleman started it in the 1960's (or 1950's). As a result, we put more parties in the field than ever before (10) – but with a lousy cone crop, we found low numbers of cone-dependent species. Ponderosa Pines had no cones. I don't think any of the parties saw cones on a single ponderosa. A few spruces in the count circle (mostly planted) did have some cones. The lack of ponderosa cones explains the dearth of chickadees, nuthatches, finches, crossbills, and the like. In a good year, we should count hundreds of Mountain Chickadees, Pygmy Nuthatches, and crossbills.

            Aaron Shipe took very fine pictures of Common Redpolls. And Doug Kibbe has a splendid photo of a Great Horned Owl that his group and our group both saw, perched in a barn window – and I have pictures of an owl (same one?) perched in the same barn window on the Jan. 10, 2010 Christmas count! 

            I suppose the most notable observation was 26 Rough-legged Hawks among nine raptor species. 

 

Hugh Kingery
Franktown, CO

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