John Martin Reservoir CBC results

[Duane Nelson]

Birders,

John Martin Reservoir tallied 100 species on the CBC conducted on
December 15th, but the story behind the number is full of adversity,
huge challenges, and, ultimately, the most satisfying count I've ever
been a part of. The same storm system that paralyzed the Front Range and
northeast Colorado impacted southeast Colorado. Several count
participants could not make the drive due to blizzard conditions to the
west. We received a glancing blow from snow that began at dawn and made
roads treacherous for about an hour, when predicted strong winds kicked
in. The wind speed reached 35 miles per hour through early afternoon,
but rising temperatures made it almost bearable. Needless to say,
conditions for spotting birds were difficult.

The floods of last summer inundated all south-facing cliffs on the north
side of the reservoir, along with the warm micro-habitat at the base of
the cliffs, which normally hosts many specialty birds. Curiously, with
an immense lake that was ice-free, I knew from scouting that the number
of waterfowl was extraordinarily low, and that many regular species
would not be present. Add to that trying to scope a lake with huge
white-caps in howling wind and cold. The few birds present might not be
found at all.

Well, the 15 participants worked hard, and found almost everything that
I knew about, and much more. Night birders completed a grand slam before
the wind and snow ended, detecting five species of owls (including Barn,
Western-Screech, Eastern-Screech and Long-eared), as well as both
Virginia Rails and Soras.

All species of geese were at record low levels. Mark Peterson, Brad
Steger and I estimated 100,000 "white" geese in late November. We
tallied only around 300 on count day. On a count that typically has
thousands of Ross' Geese, we didn't see any until almost dusk. Common
Mergansers, a staple of the count, with numbers up to 12,000, were
almost absent. With a lot of work, we ended up with three. We had ZERO
individuals of most diving duck species, including Canvasback, Redhead,
Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, scoters, Long-tailed
Duck. The duck species we had were a count anomaly. After Mallard and
Common Goldeneye, our most Common ducks were Gadwall and Northern
Shoveler, species normally hard to detect on this count. Grebes were
still present, and we got Western, Clark's, a record number of
Pied-billed and several Eared. We set a new record with almost 500
American Coots, a species that normally is very hard to find in winter
here. We had only three species of Gulls.

My feeders in Las Animas produced three Canyon Towhees, one
Curved-billed Thrasher, one Red-bellied Woodpecker and one Common
Grackle, all bonus species in this count circle that were seen by the
participants that met at my house for lunch.

Some excellent landbirds were found by multiple diligent parties,
including two Roadrunners, Mourning Doves, Ladder-backed Woodpecker,
White-breasted (eastern) Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Ruby-crowned Kinglet,
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Harris' Sparrow, a single flock of 25 Common
Grackles (with no Great-tailed Grackles on the count!), Brewer's
Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Our best birds included a Pacific Loon. I had one while scouting as a
Count Week (CW) bird, and I thought there was no way it would ever be
relocated amongst whitecaps, but the reservoir counters somehow found it.
One party relocated two Black-crowned Night-Herons, new for this count.
Kathy Mihm Dunning found a Common Redpoll (photographed). Even in
invasion years, they rarely make it this far south.

We had an additional three CW birds. On December 14th, I counted 5
White-faced Ibis, in two separate locations, and saw one in the late
afternoon on the tiny pond one frequented for a week, but the pond iced
over and we found none of this species that would have been a first
Colorado CBC record. I observed three American White Pelicans and one
Horned Grebe on December 14th, but that's the breaks.

I felt at the end of the day that we had just about maximized our
possibilities considering conditions that were extremely challenging,
the reason for my happiness and gratitude for an amazing group of
participants.

Duane Nelson
Las Animas, Bent County CO