Re: [cobirds] Yard list questions: How many of CO's 520 species have been seen (or heard) from a yard?

Hello All,

How long keeping a list:  We've been in the house 40 years, but didn't begin keeping specific sighting records early on, so about 35 years.  

We keep two lists, "Birds Seen in the Yard"; and "Birds Seen from the Yard", i.e., mostly fly overs, but sometimes birds we can see in neighbors' trees, yards from our yard.  

Style: Dedicated, 15 years of FeederWatch, and binoculars/camera usually at hand when in the yard.  

How many species:  Combining our two lists, 98 species

 

Favorites: "in the yard":  Yellow-billed Cuckoo, singing from our then Russian Olive; Carolina Wren, in three separate years; Brown Thrasher; Bohemian Waxwings, about 50 in the Hackberry; Red-eyed Vireo; among twelve Warbler species, Nashville, Mourning, Chestnut-sided; among ten Sparrow species, Fox and Harris's; Summer Tanager; and White-winged Dove.  Perhaps the oddest, a pair of Mallards exploring the vegetable garden in our fenced yard.   

Favorites:  "from the yard": large flocks of Sandhill Cranes flying over the house on a number of occasions; Scarlet Tanager, singing from a neighbor's tree; Common Poorwill, in a neighbor's driveway, singing and sallying up for insects, returning to the same spot each time. 

Most memorable: toss-up between seeing/hearing a Yellow-billed Cuckoo singing in the yard, at the time, it was the first time hearing that song since leaving Pennsylvania; and 100s of Snow Geese, in wave after wave, flying directly over the house on 11/14/09.

Location/Habitat:  Small urban yard in east Denver, not near open space or water.  

Bill Wuerthele, Denver 

On Mar 11, 2024, at 10:40 AM, Thomas Heinrich <teheinrich@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

Every now and then one of us will share the excitement of adding a rarity or new species to a yard list, report yard list totals, or comment on local trends. And some of the lists, and variety of species, are really impressive (e.g. David Suddjian's, Gary Lefko's). 

Yellow Grosbeak, Pyrrhuloxia, Streak-backed Oriole, Long-billed Thrasher, Costa's Hummingbird, Laurence's Goldfinch, and even Anhinga come to mind as rarities that have shown up in or been observed from yards. (Perhaps the recent Brambling, too?)

As a pretty obsessive yard lister (i.e. binocs always on, camera ready when outdoors, much of the time indoors too), I often wonder about others' experience with yard-listing. 

How long have you been keeping your list?

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

How many species?

Rarest, or favorite species?

Most memorable experience?

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

And the big question: if we tallied up all our yard lists, how close to Colorado's 520 species could we get?

It seems likely that certain families would be less well-represented; shorebirds, waterfowl, and gulls, for example. But with neighborhoods lining bodies of water such as Boyd Lake, Lake Loveland, Marston Reservoir, Jackson Lake, and MacIntosh Lake (in Boulder), among many others, many of those species theoretically could have been counted on a yard list. Maybe some lucky person living on the shores of Boyd Lake has Long-tailed Jaeger, Slaty-backed Gull, and Garganey on their yard list!

Wishing all good health, good birding, and an exciting Spring migration!

--Thomas Heinrich

My answers to the questions above:

15 years

Dedicated to obsessive 

152 species

Wood Thrush, Yellow-throated Warbler, N Cardinal, Common Redpoll, Bohemian Waxwing

Watching spring raptor migration from the roof-top, 35 Broad-winged Hawks among 130 raptors of 10 species on one high-flow day (4/18/2020)

Interface between suburban and open space, base of foothills, el. 5600'

--

Thomas Heinrich
Boulder, CO
TEHeinrich@gmail.com
www.pbase.com/birdercellist

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