I toured parts of Park County today, beginning in the Lake George area, then up the west side of Eleven Mile Res, over to Hartsel, to Fairplay, to Jefferson and down Hwy 285 toward Denver. I encountered open water along the South Platte near Lake George, at Plamman Lake (aerators keeping a hole open), at the South Platte inlet at the upper end of Eleven Mile Res., and at a pond near 63 Ranch SWA that never seems to freeze (don't know why). Otherwise it is still all icy up there.
-- Most areas were fairly quiet. I was impressed by the small numbers of raptors in the open county areas of South Park. I traversed about 75 miles of such "mountain park" habitat and encountered only 2 Nor. Harriers, 1 Bald Eagle, 4 Golden Eagles, 3 Red-tailed Hawks and 2 Prairie Falcons. I think this was maybe my first winter visit to South Park to miss Rough-legged Hawk...there was likely one somewhere, but I didn't see it. 2 Northern Shrikes represented the raptorette department.
Stops in forest in the Lake George region (County Roads 94, 61, 98) had 3 Northern Pygmy-Owls, 5 Red Crossbills (Type 2) at 4 places (Ponderosa cone crop is mostly light and old, but some new cones are coming on line), 2 Dusky Grouse (CR 98), 1 Northern Goshawk (CR 98), 1 Am. Three-toed Woodpecker (CR 61), 3 Evening Grosbeaks, 2 Pine Grosbeaks, and 2 Gray Jays.
A male Mountain Bluebird along CR 98 about a mile from CR 59 was an early arrival and a delight, my first this season. An American Dipper was singing from the edge of the Platte under the Hwy 24 bridge just downstream of Lake George. It was getting some impressive sound echoing out from under the concrete highway bridge!
The only interesting spot for waterbirds was the northwest corner of Eleven Mile Reservoir, as viewed from the Cross Creek Campground vicinity, where the South Platte inlet had created some leads of open water in the reservoir. A scope is essential. The highlight was five swans snoozing near some ducks on the ice near the open water. Two of them lifted their heads and had features of Tundra Swan, and I assume all five were Tundra Swans, a good find for Park in February. Other waterfowl here were 26 Canada Geese, 18 Mallards, 2 Gadwall, 4 American Wigeon, 1 Nor. Pintail, 3 Green-winged Teal, 1 Redhead, 9 Buffleheads, 93 Common Goldeneyes (lots of displaying males), and 9 Common Mergansers. Some of these will probably trip eBird filters for this date, but except for the swans, I think they are all to be expected there at this time of year if there is open water. Such was the case last year in late Feb. Also present were 6 Am. Coots and 1 Ring-billed Gull. Elsewhere on the lake, a Great Blue Heron was standing resolutely on the nesting island located off Witcher Cove. That whole region of the lake is ice-locked, and it was the only bird evident on the island, which after some weeks will have large numbers of Cal. Gulls, D-c Corms, and more herons. I guess this heron was either optimistic or anxious, or both. My only other ducks today were on the river near Lake George: 21 Mallards, 4 Common Goldeneyes, and 3 Common Mergs.
Fairplay had about 30 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches and 2 Brown-capped Rosy-Finches among two yards with feeding stations. The house with feeders at Jefferson had about 52 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches, with great viewing. This is the house behind the green Jefferson Market. Some of the feeders are in the front yard in plain view from the public street. Today I was there at 1:30 and the feeders still had a fair amount of seed.
Wee hour owling efforts in the southern region of the county had quite a few Nor. Saw-whet Owls calling.
David Suddjian
Littleton, CO
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