Re: [cobirds] A report on Guanella Pass BBS route June 22, sign of the (bad) times?

I did my BBS route in Lincoln County a few weeks back and had normal-to-above-average counts for most species there and no really notable misses.  Habitat is Lark Bunting territory and there were lots of those.  I think someone reported earlier the Pawnee had lower than normal counts?  Is it a phenomenon more notable in the northern part of the state, perhaps -closer to some of the big fires of last year, for example?  Just curious.

Diana Beatty

El Paso County

On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 11:49 AM David Suddjian <dsuddjian@gmail.com> wrote:

One of my Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) routes is Guanella Pass, beginning above Georgetown in Clear Creek and proceeding along the Guanella Pass Scenic Byway over the pass and down to Grant in Park County, and then up Park CR 60 to its end in the upper watershed of the North Fork of the South Platte. BBS routes have 50 stops along a 24.5 mile route, with 3 minute samples collected at each stop once each year.

I ran the Guanella Pass BBS route on June 22 this year, normal timing, with good weather conditions. It was the easiest ever because there were so few birds! The total species I detected was just 29, the lowest ever for the route and down from the 5 year avg of 46 species. The total number of individual birds was just 127, the lowest ever for the route, just 33% of the 5 year avg of 387 individuals. I detected no species at all on10 stops. It is highly unusual to record zero species during a 3 min. BBS sample when weather conditions are reasonable. In fact, barring stops with really loud water noise, I have never had zeros on a BBS stop, but 10 on this survey?!

19 Species that are expected on the route (i.e., found in 3-5 of the last 5 years) were missed entirely. A number of these misses are species which were found in every year in recent history, such as Dusky Flycatcher, Steller's Jay, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain Bluebird, Townesend's Solitaire, Pine Siskin, and Song Sparrow. Of the 29 species found, 15 species were found in numbers 50% or less than the recent 5-year avg. This included all of the species that form the core of the species assemblage of the route except for Warbling Vireo and Wilson's Warbler, which were the only core migrant species in near average numbers  this year. Spruce-fir forest and the alpine tundra near the Pass were the habitats that were the most empty of bird song. 

** A summary of missed species and those in low numbers is pasted below.

I haven't looked in detail at my other routes, but of the 4 others I've aready run all had notable low counts of many landbirds and more than the normal frequency of "missing" species. 

David Suddjian

Ken Caryl Valley

Littleton, CO

	% of
Species	5 yr avg
Broad-tailed Hummingbird	22%
Red-tailed Hawk	Miss
Red-naped Sapsucker	Miss
Hammond's Flycatcher	Miss
Dusky Flycatcher	Miss
Cordilleran Flycatcher	29%
Canada Jay	Miss
Steller's Jay	Miss
Clark's Nutcracker	Miss
Common Raven	22%
Violet-green Swallow	31%
Mountain Chickadee	20%
Red-breasted Nuthatch	Miss
House Wren	Miss
American Dipper	Miss
Golden-crowned Kinglet	Miss
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	24%
Mountain Bluebird	Miss
Townsend's Solitaire	Miss
Veery	Miss
Swainson's Thrush	Miss
Hermit Thrush	16%
American Robin	50%
Pine Grosbeak	Miss
Red Crossbill	Miss
Pine Siskin	Miss
Fox Sparrow	16%
Gray-headed Junco	36%
White-crowned Sparrow	16%
Song Sparrow	Miss
Lincoln's Sparrow	48%
Green-tailed Towhee	42%
MacGillivray's Warbler	50%
Audubon's Warbler	32%
Total Species	64%
Total individuals	33%

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