Monday 18 March 2024

[cobirds] Crestone Yard List update

Thomas, thanks for provoking a really interesting thread. Gives renewed respectability to sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea gazing idly through a window…

 

Location/habitat: urban, suburban, rural, etc?

We are in the Baca Grande, Crestone, Saguache County at 8000 ft in pure Pinyon Juniper habitat but about a half mile from Willow Creek with riparian Ponderosa, Aspen, and Cottonwood. Most willows and brush cleared out for fire mitigation.

 

How long have you been keeping your list? 

In Colorado, we have had feeders since 1971. In Crestone, intermittently, since 2000, as we visit irregularly for a month or so at a time – two feeders are maintained by a friend when we aren't there.

 

What's your style of yard listing: casual, mainly feeder watching, moderate, dedicated, obsessed? 

When in residence, we maintain multiple feeders, bird baths, and some brush piles. My wife, Bayard, is dedicated. She would call me obsessed!

 

How many species?

95 on the property with an additional 12 within a half mile radius, along Willow Creek.

In addition, the Mule Deer vacuum up sunflower. Black Bear (when we forget to bring in the feeders) eat the suet and the feeders. Coyote are frequent visitors, and Gray Fox and Bobcat irregular visitors.  This year a stunning Abert's (Tufted-eared) Squirrel has graced us with their presence.

 

Rarest, or favorite species?

Probably, the rarest species on the property: Orchard Oriole, Blue Jay, Yellow-breasted Chat, Lazuli Bunting. Due to our location in the Sangres, the appearance of any "eastern species" is a big event, such as when N. Parula and Hooded Warbler were found close by.

Flocks of Pinyon Jays (which are running at 45 this year, with a high count of 95 at feeders in years past) which visit every three hours or so, are a sight to behold and to hear and expensive to satisfy.

Each year, we have something unique to record: this year we have had a flock of 12-15 Bushtits who swarm a suet cake until it becomes just a hanging "hive" of bushtits.

 

Notably absent from our list is any Rosy Finch or Red Crossbill – both species are difficult to find in Saguache County. We also missed a Scott's Oriole which was seen for a week or more at another feeder in the Baca.

 

Most memorable experience?

Two Williamson's Sapsuckers hanging out at our bird bath for a couple of days in

late fall. When we are there in mid-May, suet and oranges attract large numbers of Western Tanagers (high count 14), Black-headed Grosbeaks and Bullock's Orioles providing colorful chaos for 5-6 days.

 

John and Bayard Cobb

Currently Denver

 

 

 

 

From: cobirds@googlegroups.com <cobirds@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Thomas Heinrich
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 10:15 AM
To: Colorado Birds <cobirds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [cobirds] Colorado Combined Yard List update

 

Hi all,

Just a quick update:

 

Total species now: 385

 

Total number of contributors: 60, make that 61 with Larry M

 

Needs list total (see below): 135 species

 

Still working on getting all who have contributed represented in the list. If you have any new species to add to the list, I'm happy to include them. I'll try to include those submitting species already listed from now forward, if I have time. Definitely have my hands full. But please keep posting--it's been really interesting and a lot of fun to read about everyone's experiences and to connect with others across the state (and out of state, as well). 

 

Thanks!

Thomas

 

 

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

Pink-footed Goose

Barnacle Goose

Garganey

Eurasian Wigeon

Mexican Duck

American Black Duck

Mottled Duck

Tufted Duck

Harlequin Duck

White-winged Scoter

California Quail

Ruffed Grouse

White-tailed Ptarmigan

Greater Sage-Grouse

Gunnison Sage-Grouse

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Greater Prairie-Chicken

Red-necked Grebe

Groove-billed Ani

Eastern Whip-poor-will

Mexican Whip-poor-will

Vaux's Swift

King Rail

Common Gallinule

Purple Gallinule

Yellow Rail

Black Rail

Limpkin

Whooping Crane

Black-bellied Plover

American Golden-Plover

Piping Plover

Snowy Plover

Eskimo Curlew

Hudsonian Godwit

Marbled Godwit

Ruddy Turnstone

Red Knot

Ruff

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper

Curlew Sandpiper

Dunlin

Purple Sandpiper

White-rumped Sandpiper

Buff-breasted Sandpiper

Semipalmated Sandpiper

Short-billed Dowitcher

Willet

Red Phalarope

Pomarine Jaeger

Parasitic Jaeger

Long-tailed Jaeger

Long-billed Murrelet

Ancient Murrelet

Black-legged Kittiwake

Ivory Gull

Sabine's Gull

Black-headed Gull

Little Gull

Ross's Gull

Laughing Gull

Short-billed Gull

Western Gull

Slaty-backed Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Kelp Gull

Sooty Tern

Least Tern

Arctic Tern

Royal Tern

Sandwich Tern

Black Skimmer

Red-throated Loon

Arctic Loon

Pacific Loon

Yellow-billed Loon

Wood Stork

Magnificent Frigatebird

Brown Booby

Neotropic Cormorant

Brown Pelican

Least Bittern

Tricolored Heron

Reddish Egret

White Ibis

Glossy Ibis

Roseate Spoonbill

Black Vulture

White-tailed Kite

Common Black Hawk

Harris's Hawk

Variable Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk

Zone-tailed Hawk

Snowy Owl

Spotted Owl

Barred Owl

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Crested Caracara

Gyrfalcon

Dusky-capped Flycatcher

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher

Tropical Kingbird

Couch's Kingbird

Thick-billed Kingbird

Fork-tailed Flycatcher

Acadian Flycatcher

Buff-breasted Flycatcher

Gray Vireo

Yellow-green Vireo

Cave Swallow

Cactus Wren

Pacific Wren

Sedge Wren

Bendire's Thrasher

Rufous-backed Robin

Sprague's Pipit

Cassia Crossbill

Smith's Longspur

Black-chinned Sparrow

LeConte's Sparrow

Nelson's Sparrow

Baird's Sparrow

Henslow's Sparrow

Chihuahuan Meadowlark

Louisiana Waterthrush

Swainson's Warbler

Lucy's Warbler

Tropical Parula

Grace's Warbler

Golden-crowned Warbler

Hepatic Tanager

 

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