Following David's post earlier this week, I also visited Park County Friday looking for rosy-finches. At Jefferson, the feeders were empty and had no rosies. At Fairplay,I arrived in time to see three small flocks (about 25 birds each) of rosy-finches fly off. One Black Rosy-Finch returned briefly, then flew off from the nearly empty feeders. I drove the other streets of Fairplay looking for other feeders, but found no feeders or rosy-finches.
On the way back to the Front Range I stopped at Como. While cruising the streets of Como, I saw a small flock of rosy-finches fly from a driveway to a rooftop. As I watched they flew off joined by a larger flock of about 50 from the vicinity of the home where I was parked. After a short wait they returned. Eventually, there was a flock of more than 300 birds on the driveway, yard, deck and roof of the house. The flock comprised predominantly Brown-capped Rosy-Finches with a good number of Gray-crowned and at least two Blacks. David noted the absence of feeders in Como. When I scanned the ground with bins, however, the mystery of the rosy-finch presence was solved. The ground was covered with bird seed. A woman at the home came out to the deck, and we had a pleasant conversation. She loves the birds that come to her seed, but wasn't aware of their names. We looked at the rosy-finches in my Sibley which she now plans to have her daughter order on Amazon.
Thanks to David for his South Park posts.
Chuck Hundertmark
On Sat, Jan 17, 2015 at 7:21 AM, David Suddjian <dsuddjian@gmail.com> wrote:
Friday Jan 16 I focused mostly on the southern tier of Park County, making stops along various roads, especially county roads 61, 98, 100, 71, 104, and Highway 9.--Three White-winged Crossbills were along CR 98 near CR 61. Red Crossbills were frequently encountered along CRs 61, 98 and 100. Type 2 birds were numerous and widespread, with Type 4 and Type 5 birds here and there (mostly there). I've been interested to see how CO's Red Crossbills are so attracted to Pygmy-Owls and imitations of these gnomes. I didn't note such a consistent and attentive response in my long birding in CA. CR 98 and CR 100 also had 3 and 8 Pine Grosbeaks, respectively, maybe a decent bird for the southern margin of Park county or perhaps regular there in winter. A Gray Jay along CR 98 was also good for southern Park. Evening Grosbeaks, Pinyon Jays, and a Northern Goshawk were also noted.I was interested to find a few (3) Western Scrub-Jays in both Park and Fremont, within spitting distance of the county line along CR 104 (Park) / 275A (Fremont), and nearby Highway 9. Scrub-Jays nest in small numbers this area, where there there are Gambel oaks, but they seemed to mostly leave Park after the nesting season and I wondered if they might occur at all in the winter. The Spotted Towhee, which shares this border country with the jays in nesting season, was not evident.I have found open water in only two spots in Park County recently, not counting frigid flowing strips in places along the forks of the South Platte. Plamman Reservoir along CR 98 has a hole kept open by aerators, and yesterday it held a female Ring-necked Duck and a female Common Goldeneye. The little ranch pond along Highway 285 just north of the parking lot for 63 Ranch SWA seems to stay open always. It had 22 Mallards, 2 Green-winged Teal, and 2 Gadwall. Big deal, right? But this may be the sum total occurrence of ducks in Park County right now.Late afternoon checks of feeders at Fairplay found them empty, and feeders at Jefferson had fragments of seed and just 12 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches at that time.Stepping out of the Park, there was a small flock (50ish) Rosy-Finches at Florrisant in Teller Co. Mostly Gray-crowned with at least a couple Brown-capped.Yesterday was an 8-species corvid day for me in Park.David SuddjianLittleton, CO
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Chuck Hundertmark
2546 Lake Meadow Drive
Lafayette, CO 80026
303-604-0531
Cell: 720-771-8659
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