The 6th Annual Flagler CBC was held today (1/4/17) where the high temperature was 19 and skies were mostly sunny before becoming overcast in the afternoon.
Flagler, the 3rd most easterly CBC in Colorado and the only count entirely in Kit Carson County, is noteworthy for being the 18th Amendment CBC in Colorado—totally dry. That keeps the species count way down, but it gets me excited when I see 2 Canada Geese!
The total species count was 36 (range 33 to 54 with a mean of 41) and no new species were added to the cumulative count list even though we are only completing our 6th year. The only species missed that was seen on all previous counts was Ring-necked Pheasant.
Highlights include the aforementioned Canada Geese, 10 Eastern Bluebirds and 1 Chestnut-collared Longspur. Some might get excited by 373 Lapland Longspurs, but not loyal Flagler CBC-ers. 373 is 1.67% of our previous high of 22,374 lappys, a national high in 2012/13. Also noteworthy is that we had 4 times as many Golden Eagles as Red-tailed Hawks (4 to 1), and that on Red-tailed was actually in the town of Flagler itself.
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
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