All,
I spent a lovely weekend mostly in the Blue River Valley north of Silverthorne following up on a tip that a good spruce-fir crop had developed there late this summer. That certainly was the case and it looks like crossbills are starting to move in to exploit the large and extensive cone crop that runs from at least the Silverthorne area all the way up to Hot Sulphur Springs and even a bit further north. Here are some of the highlights:
Yesterday
I spent most of my time in the Ute Pass area and had at least 12 type 5 Red Crossbills in spruce in scattered locations. A pair of Gray Jays also cheered me up. Around the Blue River Campground I had large numbers of a lot of the common migrant species right now such as White-crowned Sparrow, Wilson's Warbler, Audubon's Warbler, Mountain Bluebirds, etc. The real treat of the entire trip for me was being awoken by a singing Boreal Owl several times throughout the night at the campground.
Today
While packing up camp this morning I had a flock of 10 type 5 Red Crossbills and later a flock of 9 Evening Grosbeaks fly over the campground. I spent a lot of time on Grand CR 30 which was absolutely incredible, both in terms of birds and the colors in the landscape. The spruce crop was really exceptional here and I had a flock of at least 200 Pine Siskins foraging on spruce as well as 7 type 5 Red Crossbills including one family of 4. The entire road was super birdy and I had great numbers of juncos, creepers, both kinglets, Wilson's Warblers, Audubon's Warblers, White-crowned Sparrows and more. A single Townsend's Warbler and a Pine Grosbeak were also nice additions. I did the last of my birding today at the Hot Sulphur Springs SWA where the spruce-fir crop was still excellent and found a family of 3 type 5 Red Crossbills, loads of siskins, and 2 Townsend's Solitaires.
If anyone visits any of the areas listed, I'd really appreciate hearing about the numbers of crossbills encountered. I plan on making several trips to monitor the area in the future, but my availability this semester for weekend-long field trips is at an all time low and won't be getting better any time soon.
Good birding,
-Cody Porter
Laramie, WY
-- I spent a lovely weekend mostly in the Blue River Valley north of Silverthorne following up on a tip that a good spruce-fir crop had developed there late this summer. That certainly was the case and it looks like crossbills are starting to move in to exploit the large and extensive cone crop that runs from at least the Silverthorne area all the way up to Hot Sulphur Springs and even a bit further north. Here are some of the highlights:
Yesterday
I spent most of my time in the Ute Pass area and had at least 12 type 5 Red Crossbills in spruce in scattered locations. A pair of Gray Jays also cheered me up. Around the Blue River Campground I had large numbers of a lot of the common migrant species right now such as White-crowned Sparrow, Wilson's Warbler, Audubon's Warbler, Mountain Bluebirds, etc. The real treat of the entire trip for me was being awoken by a singing Boreal Owl several times throughout the night at the campground.
Today
While packing up camp this morning I had a flock of 10 type 5 Red Crossbills and later a flock of 9 Evening Grosbeaks fly over the campground. I spent a lot of time on Grand CR 30 which was absolutely incredible, both in terms of birds and the colors in the landscape. The spruce crop was really exceptional here and I had a flock of at least 200 Pine Siskins foraging on spruce as well as 7 type 5 Red Crossbills including one family of 4. The entire road was super birdy and I had great numbers of juncos, creepers, both kinglets, Wilson's Warblers, Audubon's Warblers, White-crowned Sparrows and more. A single Townsend's Warbler and a Pine Grosbeak were also nice additions. I did the last of my birding today at the Hot Sulphur Springs SWA where the spruce-fir crop was still excellent and found a family of 3 type 5 Red Crossbills, loads of siskins, and 2 Townsend's Solitaires.
If anyone visits any of the areas listed, I'd really appreciate hearing about the numbers of crossbills encountered. I plan on making several trips to monitor the area in the future, but my availability this semester for weekend-long field trips is at an all time low and won't be getting better any time soon.
Good birding,
-Cody Porter
Laramie, WY
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