I had already been planning to venture out to the plains area of eastern and southeaster Elbert County today when I saw Mark's post from last evening. It certainly helped encourage me to actually get up early and go. In fact I got up real early and did some owling in pine and riparian habitats first, and was then well positioned for the start of the day. My first daylight stop, shortly before sunrise, was still in the pines. I paused in the eastward patch of pines that is along Hwy 86 just west of CR 105 and was immediately treated to singing Red Crossbills (Type 2). They seemed plentiful in that patch, which has lots of cones. Red Crossbill was also plentiful in the large pine patch near Ridge Road.
-- I drove and stopped along many different roads in the plains region of the county, focusing mostly south of Hwy 24. Some of the principal roads covered included (in order) CRs 169, 46, 137, 133, 2, 149, 173, 22, 197, 189, and 166. While I did not encounter the massive flocks or numbers reported by Mark, both Horned Lark and Lapland Longspur were frequently encountered and fairly numerous. Horned Larks were more frequent and more numerous, but in suitable areas Lapland Longspurs were often noted, and even in less suitable spots they were often heard flying over. My rounded off totals of estimates were 21000 Horned Larks and 3500 Lapland Longspurs. Many spots with longspurs had only small numbers evident, but several stretches of road had 250 to 750.
Raptors included 17 Northern Harriers (just one adult male), 11 Rough-legged Hawks, 1 Bald Eagle, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Merlin, 1 Short-eared Owl and 1 roosting Long-eared Owl.
Some Common Ravens were eastward of their usual range in the county, including pairs near the south end of CR 149, at Agate and at Cedar Point. The species is fairly rare in the plains portion of the county, east of the pine forest region. Townsend's Solitaires were plentiful in planted stands of trees at ranches where there were juniper (28), and at the natural stand of junipers at Cedar Point (9).
David Suddjian
Ken Caryl Valley
Littleton, CO
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