[cobirds] A report from Cheyenne County 1/15

Lynne Miller and I ventured to Cheyenne County on Jan 15 to add some winter birds there and to explore. The county is little visited, and indeed there were only 5 checklists ever submitted to eBird for Cheyenne during the 3rd week of January (at least in the public output). We added 27 more checklists. We made a west to east transect more or less and with various jogs across the northern half of the county, falling shy of Kansas by 3 miles, and then made fewer stops along a westward return along the Hwy 40/287 corridor.

I've included the tally from our Cheyenne checklists below. Birds were similarly scarce, similar to my experience on the Flagler CBC in Kit Carson Co to the north about 10 days prior. We managed only 20 species. Horned Lark was the only plentiful species that was widespread. Raptors were a treat, with an impressive 27 Rough-legged Hawks in Cheyenne Co, including one beautiful dark morph at CR Z near CR 41. The only Red-taileds all day were a pair at Cheyenne Wells. A Merlin was perched at the tiny Arapahoe Cemetery. Lapland Longspurs were apparently sparse, detected in small numbers at just two spots. Most ranch yard groves and hedgerows and other tree areas had no birds evident, with mostly the collared dove / starling / house sparrow assemblage. We found only one active feeder. That yard had a White-crowned Sparrow, and two other White-crowneds were with tree sparrow flocks at weedy spots elsewhere along roads. Interestingly, there were no prior winter season eBird reports for Cheyenne County and this was the only species that came up rare for us according to eBird filters. Presumably this partly reflects limited winter coverage?

David Suddjian

Littleton, CO

Birds recorded in Cheyenne Co 1/15/2019

Rock Pigeon	3
Eurasian Collared-Dove	50
Northern Harrier	7
Red-tailed Hawk	2
Rough-legged Hawk	27
Ferruginous Hawk	2
Northern Flicker	1
Merlin	1
Prairie Falcon	4
Horned Lark	985
Townsend's Solitaire	1
American Robin	3
European Starling	148
House Finch	1
Lapland Longspur	22
American Tree Sparrow	38
Dark-eyed Junco	13
White-crowned Sparrow	3
Western Meadowlark	28
House Sparrow	279

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