I lead a group to the Ward area this morning for the 31st annual Indian Peaks Fall Count in Ward at the base of the Mt. Audubon/Brainard Lake area. Seven of us including Tom Wilberding, Christian Nunes, Andy Cowell, Gary Matthews, Elena Klaver and Judy Wright, were in three teams for a record day. We had 52 species besting the 50 of 1992 and well over 1,200 individuals.
Good individual species included Dusky Grouse, Three-toed Woodpecker, Pinyon Jay and Cassin’s Vireo. Good totals included 35 Band-tailed Pigeons, 18 Evening Grosbeaks and 56 Townsend’s Warblers. Note that over the previous 30 years we had a total of 88 Townsend’s!
What is amazing is that for the first 20 minutes of the count, from 7:20 to 7:40 we had a total on one bird, a Steller’s Jay that was silent, no less. After that we were rarely out of contact with an active flock.
Bill Kaempfer, Boulder
No comments:
Post a Comment