I returned to Ward this morning with a small group (Alex Brown, Andy Cowell, Gwen Moore, Elena Klaver and Topi Martinez) to do the Ward North Block on the 34th annual Indian Peaks Winter Count. Starting with a Christmas Count in 1982, the Indian Peaks counts have been continuous for a third of a century now with some of us (like Alex and me) going back almost all the way to the start. My thanks go to Dave Hallock and Mike Figgs for initiating these counts which now have accumulated an amazing set of data on mountain birding that probably does not have an equal.
In any event, today was as spectacular in Ward as last week was awful. Last week, you might remember, I took a field trip to Ward and Allenspark and we saw 3 individuals of 2 species, and they were all in Allenspark. Not so today.
We met right at 8:00 at the intersection of Lefthand Canyon Drive and Sawmill Road about a mile southeast of Ward. Right there things were clearly active with both chickadees and Pygmy Nuthatches about. We next stopped about a quarter mile on up the road (now Utica Street—the Main Street of Ward!) and we could now say that we had tallied not only both chickadees, but both pygmies. A group of chickadees was flitting about us when all of a sudden the changed their tune—Elena and I noticed this immediately and she got on the bird, a Northern Pygmy-Owl only about 30-40 feet away in a pine looking annoyed at the chickadee chatter.
On to Ward where the “Lower Ward” feeders (one house up from the Marracco Café) were not notably active, mainly some Steller’s Jays and a few Red-breasted Nuthatches. We did better in “Middle Ward” (by the post office) were we really pumped up the yard list for Maggie Boswell’s old aunt’s place with Pine Grosbeaks and a small flock of mainly Gray-crowned Rosies with at least one Brown-capped that came in to a feeder across the lane, plus flyover Clark’s Nutcrackers. We headed on to “Upper Ward” (west of the Old Depot; when you’ve done a count for 34 years, this geography gets pretty intimate). Here we had perhaps the most amazing bird of the day—a singing Red-winged Blackbird. The Rosy flock was also more in evidence with about 40 birds mainly Gray-crowned but with more Brown-capped mixed in a two Black Rosy-Finches as well. Here we also had 5 super-sharp Pine Grosbeaks.
Next we drove up to the Brainard Lake Parking Area which was as empty as I have ever seen it. There were no more than 20 cars present as opposed to over 140 one year, long ago (when you do something for 34 years….) We had a couple of Clark’s Nutcrackers fly by but missed Linda Andes-Georges who must have been returning to the lot at about that time, and we also missed the Northern Goshawk that she had.
We came back down to the Peak-to-Peak Highway and at the creek crossing of Chipmunk Creek about 2 miles north of Ward had one robin and one solitaire (our only ones for the day) and a Hairy Woodpecker. We turned back to the southeast on County Road 100 and then headed down the Spring Gulch track. That’s where we ran into some juncos including a couple of White-winged, and we also picked up a few Cassin’s Finches. We then headed east on the Gold Lake Road. A few years ago, the forest service cut some fire breaks and the left over slash must have a lot of food content as we got into a flock of well over 100 birds with at least 40 Red Crossbills, dozens of Mt. Chickadees, all three nuthatches, more Cassin’s Finches and at least two Hairy Woodpeckers.
We wound up at about 11:30, and all told had 21 species. That is a total only topped in 2004 (23) and 2005 (25) (have I said that this is the 34th annual winter count?) and 2005 was the only other winter count that I can find with Northern Pygmy-Owl.
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
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