I went back to Park County on Tuesday Dec 2 to see what I could find, and also because as of Dec 1 there were no complete eBird checklists ever submitted for the county in the first week of December. Now there will be a bunch, once I submit my many lists from Tuesday. This spotlights an opportunity for Colorado eBirders which I'd like to propose at the bottom of this email…after the birds.
I began in the northeast corner of the county in the Pine Junction / Bailey region. Red Crossbills (mostly Type 2 and locally Type 4) were frequently noted, and Evening Grosbeaks were noted in a couple spots. A rare-for-Park Blue Jay was at a home at County Road 74 at Nova, north of Pine Junction. An adult male Varied Thrush flew up with some robins from a yard along CR 72. I didn't make note of the address, but the site was one mile down CR 72 from Kudu Trail. I couldn't tell if there was a feeder in the yard, or what was attracting the thrushes to that spot in Ponderosa pine forest. American Robins are uncommon to rare in Park in winter (largely absent), and other "regular" species in that category which I noted in the Pine Junction / Bailey region included Great Blue Heron, Downy Woodpecker, Brown Creeper, Townsend's Solitaire, and Song Sparrow.
I went several miles up CR 60, leaving nearly all birds behind the farther up I went. Open areas at the base of the road near Highway 285 had a flock of 28 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches and 12 Brown-capped Rosy-Finches. An Am. Robin in the snow at about 9,700 feet was pretty high up for December. There were some rosehips on shrubs in that area. Also noted along this road were Gray Jay, Pine Grosbeak and Am. Three-toed Woodpecker.
Antero Reservoir had three strips of open water amid the mostly frozen surface. One of these had birds, including several duck species and 1 Common Loon.
A highlight at Eleven Mile Reservoir was a flock of rosy-finches on a rocky slope at Sucker Cove. Landbirds were nearly absent around the lake, and I was surprised to encounter chattering calls coming from about 40 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches and at least one Black-Rosy-Finch! 18 Tundra Swans were still present and other Park notables for December were one Red-breasted Merganser, 4 Greater Scaup and 3 Canvasbacks. Most of the ducks were Common Goldeneyes (3,600+), Bufflehead (2,700+), and Lesser Scaup (300). A small pond along Hwy 285 near 63 Ranch SWA seems to remain unfrozen and is good for dabblers. Six dabbler species included 1 late-for-Park Northern Pintail. I saw 4 Rough-legged Hawks in South Park. A Northern Shrike was at Lake George.
Here is the eBirding opportunity I referred to above. Colorado has several large quadrants represented in eBird's species range maps with no checklists ever submitted, and many quadrants lacking submissions from particular months or seasons. And then there are many counties lacking any checklists for some or many of the week-long periods that form the basis for eBird's bar charts. If others are interested, it might be fun to identify the data gaps, and then challenge ourselves to submit eBird checklists to fill them, one by one, here and there. Any interest from eBirders? It will probably mean you go to places you've never been before, and that is usually rewarding.
David Suddjian
Littleton, CO
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