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

[Thomas Heinrich]

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
TEHei...@gmail.com
www.pbase.com/birdercellist

[KATHY HOLLAND]

My best yard bird was a Northern Goshawk.  Boy, was that a surprise!  I had to run out in my slippers and no coat in the middle of winter to get a photo.

 

Kathy Holland

Centennial, CO

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[Dan Stringer]

I liked your post, Thomas, and I love the notables on your yard list. My answers to your questions are:

How long: 

14 years.

Style: 

Casual but attentive. When the same bear started returning to my feeders daily, I took them down for my neighbor's sake and the bear's safety. Lower numbers and variety since then, still highly interesting.

How many species: 90

Rarest, or favorite species: 

American Three-toed Woodpecker. Surprising, lower than 7000' and this far east (just west of Larkspur), but I've since seen them and documented breeding in nearby Sandstone Ranch where I do surveys. Steep, forested foothills behind my neighborhood have brought many species down that are typically at higher elevations.

Most memorable experience: A male American Goshawk in winter, pursuing a squirrel up, down, and around the trees. It was unsuccessful, in close quarters the squirrel looked to be far more in it's element.

Location/habitat: At base of foothills, 6850', ponderosa pine / gambel oak.

Dan Stringer

Larkspur, CO

[Lauren Hyde]

Length: About 30 years

Style: casual but attentive

# of species: 145

Birds of interest: Lewis’s woodpecker, Lawrence’s goldfinch, Mississippi kite, Virginia rail

Most memorable sighting: 4 species of hummers (calliope, rufous, black-chinned, and broad-tailed) in one tree all at the same tune, a sage thrasher jumping up repeatedly to snatch rose hips of a wild rose bush

Location: southern Weld County

Lauren Hyde

Keenesburg

On Mar 11, 2024, at 12:01 PM, 'Dan Stringer' via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

I liked your post, Thomas, and I love the notables on your yard list. My answers to your questions are:

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[adrian...@gmail.com]

How long: About 18 years

Style: moderate

Species count: 117

Notable species: Common Poorwill, Red Crossbill, Brown Thrasher, Cassin’s Kingbird, Calliope Hummingbird. Also Greater white-fronted Goose, Snow Goose and Ross’s Goose feeding in the farm fields directly behind my house.

Most memorable: The Common Poorwill was flushed by my dog into a neighbor’s yard, so I ran next door to find it sitting under one of his pine trees, but it flushed again before I could get a photo.

Location: SW Weld county – arable farmland

 

Adrian Lakin

Mead

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[Caleb A]

Love this discussion, Thomas! I started birding before I had a car, so yard birding has a dear place in my heart.

I've been yard-listing for around 6 years in Larimer County. I was very obsessed with birding in my yard for the first 3 years, submitting up to 4 complete checklists a day during migrations. I have had to resort to more casual yard-listing since I started my UG. I am pretty happy with the 81 species on my Timnath yard list, especially considering how it is not in the "birdiest" of locations. I've had some fun Larimer birds: SUTA, CORE, PUFI, TOWA, BWWA, CAKI, HOWA, CATE. One of the most memorable experiences was when I finally, after two months of taping nocturnal audio in the summer, got a Barn Owl screaming while sitting out on my driveway. The Hooded Warbler was my first yard rarity, and I remember having Nick Komar and Joe Kipper come over to see it. The Common Redpoll was another fun one that Josh Bruening and Joe Kipper got to pick up as well. I'm in the middle of the Summerfields Estates subdivision, so again, not super birdy, but there have been some miracles. I also took my yard birding to silly extents, setting up a scope on the patio and scoping as far out to the foothills as possible to catch raptors and a few other large species that I would have otherwise not gotten. Ultimately, yard-listing taught me a lot about birding that I take outside the yard: bird every bird. Bird every common bird. Bird until every bird seems boring, because nothing has prepared me more for recognizing and finding rarities than the hundreds of hours I've spent birding the expected species. I've also gotten to see some really neat behavioral phenomena, and the cherry on top is that I didn't have to spend any gas money. ;)

Happy birding, everyone!

 - CSA

[Kyle Carlsen]

Fun discussion! My apartment doesn’t have a yard, per se, but I have been keeping a balcony list since I moved into my current place last summer.

How long? About 8 months

Style? Moderate

How many? 51 species

Favorites? Snow Goose, Sandhill Crane, Bushtit, Townsend’s Solitaire, Lincoln’s Sparrow

Memorable experience? Nothing too crazy yet, but hawk watching during fall migration was fun, with 8 species in one hour one afternoon in October.

Habitat/location? Mostly suburban in southwestern Weld County.

Kyle Carlsen

Erie, CO

[Bill Schmoker]

OK, I'll Bite!

I'm pretty dedicated/obsessed as well- been keeping my yard list as long as I've lived in SW Longmont (~22 years I think??)

Glad to have crossed the 100+ mark years ago but new species additions have been very slow for a while (now at 125.)  

Rarest species (at least while it is still as species...) is Hoary Redpoll- CO's first accepted record.  

Many other memorable sightings but a flock of ~2100 Bohemian Waxwings (counted photographically) is high on the list.  Had a Rough-legged Hawk sitting on my fence once in the 2014 irruption year which was a huge surprise in our suburban neighborhood.  A Dec. Ovenbird in my yard made it as CO's first CBC Count Week detection for that species but sadly expired just a day or two before the Longmont CBC date.

I'm maybe most pleased with the 6 hummingbird species I've detected in the yard (the 4 CO  "regulars" + Anna's & Ruby-throated.)  

-Bill Schmoker, Longmont

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[Jim Nelson]

Thomas,

A great idea.

I'm a Maryland resident, but we have a vacation home just outside Estes Park, Larimer County.  The house is west of downtown Estes Park surrounded by mainly ponderosa pine on the northwest-facing slope of a small "mountain" at about 7,600 feet above sea level.

I've been keeping a yard list there for 43 years, since July 1981 (around the same time my wife and I started birding).  At that time the home was owned by my parents, and we would visit from Maryland in the summers.  When I first started using eBird in March 2006, I uploaded all my old checklists.  Until 2009, most of the eBird checklists were from July and August visits.  After my father passed away we took over the home and began spending more time there in other months as well, and the number of visits, eBird checklists, and species increased.  I usually do a couple of eBird checklists from the house each day that we are there.  My total of eBird checklists from the house stands at 949.

I am a dedicated lister at the house.

My observations are of birds seen or heard from the house and small yard.  We maintain a handful of feeders and bird baths.  In good weather, most of the observations are from the deck.  My yard list stands at 90, which is pretty respectable given the location and the viewshed we have.  Two of my 90 species have not been accepted by eBird reviewers (Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Pacific Wren, notwithstanding my detailed writeups that, unfortunately, lacked photos or audio support).  I think it would be best, for consistency, to only count species that have been accepted by eBird, so I will claim only 88 species on my yard list.

As far as rarest species, those two unaccepted species would be the ones.  Otherwise, I have been fortunate to have a good variety of flyover species, including lots of water-associated species because we aren't too far from the Big Thompson River and Lake Estes.  Our favorite avian visitors are the resident Wild Turkey flock that roams neighborhoods on this side of Estes Park.  It's fun to watch them scratching under our feeders like really big chickens!  In recent years, a resident pair of Great Horned Owls have been heard calling and sometimes are seen roosting in trees visible from our deck.  And a few years back we were lucky to have a Northern Pygmy-Owl sitting in a tree above our deck.  Considering our habitat and location, I am fortunate to have seven warbler species on my yard list.

Thanks for doing this.

Jim Nelson

Bethesda, Maryland

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[Mel Goff]

We have a small yard in an urban setting, but we have had some terrific birds over the past 21 years.

 

Style: dedicated

 

Number of species: 121

 

We have had two particularly memorable experiences. On Jeanne's birthday in December of 2003 we were new birders. We knew nothing about reportable species, checklist committees, rare bird alerts, etc. All we knew was that we really enjoyed seeing the Snow Bunting in our yard! On another occasion, we saw a big shadow cross our kitchen window and looked out to see a Great Blue Heron sitting next to one of our bird baths. What!?!

 

Also, our yard is probably the most reliable place in El Paso county to record White-winged Dove. Many of you have notched your EPC dove at our place.

 

Good birding, all.

 

Mel Goff

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[DAVID J WALTMAN]

I keep a neighborhood list rather than yard list.  We’re at 6,000 feet in the Boulder foothills half way between Boulder and Lyons.  My neighborhood includes the 1.7 miles from US 36 to our house.  I always have feeders but way fewer in the summer in recent years since the bears have been so pesty.  My list is 155 species.  Notable birds: Northern Goshawk,Dusky Grouse, Band-tailed Pigeon, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl,Common Poorwill,Lewis’s Woodpecker, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Red-naped Sapsucker, Cassin’s Kingbird, Pinyon Jay, Eastern Towhee, Red Fox Sparrow, all three Rosy Finch, Pine Grosbeak, Common Redpoll.

  The most shocking find was the Cuckoo.  I was walking and spotted it in one of the few deciduous trees among the ponderosa pines.  I tried to photograph it with my phone but the camera focused on the leaves instead of the bird.  I’m surprised I only get four hummingbird species.   I’ve seen three others in Boulder County but not at my house.

  We’ve been here 25 years and I’ve been birding the neighborhood every day we’ve been home.  Binoculars always handy.

David Waltman

Boulder

On 03/11/2024 10:40 AM MDT Thomas Heinrich <tehei...@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, includeand variety of species, are really impressive (e.g. David Suddjian's, Gary Lefko's). 

I’m 

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
TEHei...@gmail.com
www.pbase.com/birdercellist

 

--

[Jeff Percell]

Great thread,  I've enjoyed reading these.

How long have you been keeping your list? Coming up on 4 years!

What's your style of yard listing: casual, mainly feeder watching, moderate, dedicated, obsessed? I would say dedicated, but others might call it obsessed. 

How many species? 78

Rarest, or favorite species? I've had lots of good birds pass through - Harris Sparrow, Black Headed Grosbeak, Green-tailed Towhee, Cassins Finch, Western Tanager, Lazuli Bunting, Brown Creeper, etc. Its hard to pick favorites, but the Bushtits are always a joy and relatively frequent, and I've grown fond of the Calliope Hummers that are reliable in the fall since I planted some hummingbird trumpets and agastache hyssop a few years ago. Oh and the Great Horned Owls that occasionally visit the yard!

Most memorable experience? Probably the time I looked out my window the morning after a light snow and saw a gray-crowned rosy finch! It was also fun watching common nighthawks fly around late last fall.

Location/habitat: urban, suburban, rural, etc? Erie, a stone's throw into Weld County; Suburban on the border of rural, several blue spruces and some Cottonwoods, regularly fill feeders.

Here's my yard barchart, which has been fun to see develop. 

Barchart:

https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L11071980&personal=true

I also enjoy having a patch list which includes other personal spots in and around my neighborhood. I have 95 species on those lists - best was spotting a group of Black-bellied Plovers in the field up the street, which I probably could have seen from my yard if I climbed on my roof. 

Patch barchart:

https://ebird.org/barchart?r=L11071980,L11191295,L11547816,L11078897,L12074392,L11133195,L15956598,L11439744,L18673285&personal=true

Good birding,

Jeff Percell

Erie, CO

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/2013993922.911756.1710206048297%40connect.xfinity.com.

[Marty W]

I'll throw in my two bits...

How long have you been keeping your list?   Since May of 1992 (tho our house & most of the vegetation --excepting what thereafter became our feeder trees, a large Ponderosa Pine and a Blue Spruce-- burned down in the Waldo Canyon Fire in June of 2012, so it sort of became a different yard in the same location, recreated with the new house after a 14-month gap. Do I take liberties in counting it as the same yard and continuing with my same yard-list?? Whatever... I do so.) So going on 32 years.

What's your style of yard listing: casual, mainly feeder watching, moderate, dedicated, obsessed?   Obsessed to my wife, family & most friends (and yes, I dedicatedly report to Project FeederWatch every weekend in the winters, and to eBird pretty much on a daily basis except when things slow down during the breeding season--and the feeders are stored away), but I'm retired and just love sitting by the window with my cup of coffee, binoculars handy (& going on window-to-window field-trips as called for), and as I move about the house (or yard) I've always got one eye on the lookout...

How many species?   131 now (5 new additions in 2023).

Rarest, or favorite species?   I love 'em all, but especially every new yardbird, of course. 2023 brought a Bald Eagle soaring high overhead, a Loggerhead Shrike, a Common Yellowthroat, a Brewer Sparrow, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, as well as rare repeat yard sightings of both waxwing species, Northern Parula, Canyon Towhee, Mountain Bluebird, White-winged Dove, Swainson Thrush, & Orange-crowned Warbler. I loved having a Yellow-shafted Flicker in Oct. 2020, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in Mar. 2016, and a Golden-crowned Sparrow in Feb.-Mar. of 2008...

Most memorable experience?   Probably the immature Golden-crowned Sparrow, which hung around and got me connected with CFO & Cobirds (--my first posting and Rare Bird submission), & bringing us a number of human visitors. I think it may have been the first El Paso County record? or at least was a rare target for County listers...

Location/habitat: urban, suburban, rural, etc?   0.4 acre, suburban but lots of adjacent & nearby open space, w. Flying W Ranch, Rampart Range & Natl Forest just west; 6633' eleva. with diverse native & non-native plants. I keep a heated birdbath thru the winter, and the rest of the year have the birdbath and a "bubbling boulder" which is very popular with both migrants and resident species (including bobcats & raccoons).

Here's to the home patch, wherever it may be!

Marty Wolf,

NW Colo. Spgs.

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[Thomas Heinrich]

Hi all,

Thanks so much to all who have replied and shared your yard birding experiences! It's truly fascinating and fun to read about. 

I've been replying individually (still have several to get to), but just wanted to write a quick update. 

I've put together an Excel spreadsheet to tally the data in one place (species, viewer, location). Maybe a google doc accessible to all would be more efficient, but I'm not very tech savvy, so don't know if that might be problematic.

So far, our combined yard list total: 234 species

If any of you would like to forward full yard lists to me (if your yard list is a personal thing, anonymity can be guaranteed :-), I'd be happy to include it in the overall list, particularly waterfowl, gulls, shorebirds, and warblers which, not surprisingly, are pretty sparsely represented.  Also any lists from the Western Slope or far corners of the state would be great to include.

Thanks again! 

Thomas

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

[Pam Piombino]

Dear Co-birders,

It has been a delight to read through this thread.  We are east of the Foothills in Unincorporated Boulder County, and fortunate to be surrounded by over 100 acres of conservation easements, other large properties and have a small pond just to our south.  I have tallied 145 species seen or heard on our 2 acre lot or from the surrounding land.  I take joy in them all, but the rarities include a Long-eared Owl, a Kentucky Warbler here for three days, a Sage Sparrow, a White-throated Sparrow, 4 Harris's Sparrows that spent almost 3 months on our property, 76 Sandhill Cranes that roosted overnight in the fields across the road, Common Redpoll and 2 sp. of Rosy Finch.

Sadly, I have had to back off of feeding as we were helping to raise too many mice that would find their way into the house and the seed also attracted skunks, rabbits and hunting coyotes (during the daytime no less).

Pam Piombino

west of Longmont.

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[Rachel Hopper]

Hi COBirders,

 

My yard list stands at 205.

 

I have lived on Long Pond in north Larimer since 1994 and have been obsessively keeping a list since that time.

 

Best bird would have to be an adult male Cerulean Warbler (accepted by the CBRC.) Another good warbler was Cape May. 

Biggest “ugh” bird a jaeger sp. that I saw just as it was leaving the lake.

 

My most recent addition is a Winter Wren that I started seeing and hearing in January of this year and is still around.

 

I have had a lot of good birds in my yard that many of you have come to see including a Sagebrush Sparrow in March 2021 and a couple of rare hummingbirds from years back including Anna’s and Ruby-throated (MOB).

 

Interesting birds include an adult Trumpeter Swan with yellow legs that had to be from a population frequently seen in Yellowstone. And a lone Sandhill Crane standing on the shore of the lake.

 

Biggest misses include White-winged Scoter (13 were here at one time but I did not see them because I was out of the country) and Black-legged Kittiwake found by Tony Leukering which I also missed being out of the country again!

I have had Surf Scoters more than a few times (last ones were an adult male in breeding plumage with a female) and Black Scoter just once. Tundra Swan is missing. How have I missed Tundra Swan??

 

Probably most strange is Thick-billed Longspur (photos.)

 

A dark phase Broad-winged Hawk that hung around for a while that Dave Leatherman got to see was a beautiful bird.

 

A Bewick’s wren (poor photos) is always good in Larimer County.

 

And finally, a Black Brant eating grass in my backyard was seen by many after it flew back to the ice and went to sleep with all the regular geese. Incidentally, the folks that got to see that Brant were all here to see a wintering Pine Warbler at my feeder! 

------------------------------

Rachel Kolokoff Hopper

Follow me on iNaturalist
rkhphotography.net
ho...@comcast.net
Ft. Collins, CO

[David Suddjian]

Here is my report.  --David Suddjian

How long? 10 years

Style? Obsessive, or constant is also a good descriptor

How many? 194 species. Last was Red-eyed Vireo last spring.

Favorites? A short list: Dusky Grouse in my front yard, Chimney Swift, Upland Sandpiper, Wilson's Phalarope, Long-eared Owl, Nor. Saw-whet Owl, Lewis's Woodpecker, Red-eyed Vireo, Nor. Shrike, Pinyon Jay, Winter Wren, Common Redpoll, Baltimore Oriole and 21 species of warblers.

Memorable experience? I have loved my rare wintering sparrows that have been highlights over the seasons, like Harris's, White-throated, Fox, and especially a Swamp Sparrow that wintered and took on its spring colors and began to sing before departing in May. . I love when a snipe takes up territory and is winnowing at night. I've loved sharing my hummingbird activity with others on DFO field trips. Many have enjoyed their lifer Calliope and Rufous, and that is fun. And a Saw-whet Owl that roosted here.

Habitat/location? In the hogbacks of Ken Caryl Ranch in JeffCo, in the valley at the base of the foothill slope, 6:050' elevation. I pay attention to my immediate home area which includes housing (mature conifers and deciduous trees), with a cottonwood/willow riparian corridor, cattail marsh, a small pond, grassland, foothill scrub and rocks in immediate proximity. Conifer forest and extensive open space is within one mile. I have had a steady bird feeding station for 10 years.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAF2zbdtn9OX%3Dby2y_i5om23CDyoHsOSS9bWCF8-MbSvmw%2B2hrg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Sarah Behunek]

Yes, very fun discussion and thanks for sharing! 

Where and how long.

I have lived at 6030 feet west of Horsetooth Reservoir (south of Horsetooth Mt. Park) for 21 years. I started with one bird feeder about 10 years ago. 

That mushroomed to more feeders over the last few years. I started casually journal counting last year and now do a daily EBird count (Robins just showed up today!) 

As I am new to the count, I haven't broken down by species yet. My 40+ list includes many of the common and migratory birds found in Colorado and at my elevation with a reliable food source good water sources nearby.

Notable for me: Separately, Cooper's and Sharp Shinned Hawk in the tree outside my window.  I had a Bald Eagle chase a Raven (it had a snake in its beak) from my yard utility pole with Magpies flying along opportunistically. I had a Gullnado (most likely reservoir/landfill ring billed-gulls). And now, we have Wild Turkeys (sometimes 3, sometimes 16 routinely coming through our yard for feeder snacks this year and to ride on the "merry go round" that is my tray feeder. 

And sometimes we can year the SandHill Cranes flying over our area. 

Happy Birding. 

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

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[Susanna Donato]

What a fun thread! I am in the heart of urban Denver and have had feeders up/been birding for only a couple of years. My yard total is just 39 species. We have a National Wildlife Federation-certified yard (just for fun) with some fruiting trees and lots of brush and piles of junk, but also very diligent squirrels and two terrier-type dogs to frustrate matters. I watch daily but distractedly. 

Most notable for me have been a close encounter with a Black-Chinned Hummingbird that hovered within a few feet for a minute or two as I ate my breakfast/birded one morning, a Sharp-Shinned Hawk in my cherry tree and on the fence just outside my window and diving into the cotoneaster frequented by a flock of house sparrows (verified by Dick Anderson, a far more veteran birder), and the white-crowned sparrows that lived in our yard or nearby last winter. 

Favorites include the Spotted Towhees that have lived in our yard the last two years and raised two young that I watched grow up at close range, ten feet outside my office window. Last summer we had Swainson's Hawks growing up in the neighborhood, which was neat to see. A Bald Eagle supposedly nests somewhere on the street behind mine, and a couple of months ago, I heard it but did not see it -- I gave up obsessively looking for it for my own sanity but still hold out hope. :) 

[Bryan Guarente]

If anyone wants to put their species into a shared Google Sheet using the CFO list of accepted species, feel free to go check off the ones you have seen in your yard here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OTEqQswiC_DjCkPZblkX36GS1cA0GdPVND8osM1Gkuo/edit?usp=sharing (Honor system please... only check birds that you have seen in your yard and don't uncheck other folks checks).

To join in on the conversation for my own yard:

How long have you been keeping your list?

Been keeping a yard list since 2000, but I have moved multiple times and thus have to change my yard list to another location.  Current run is 15 years.

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

Dedicated to obsessed

How many species?

121

Rarest species?

Upland Sandpiper calling flying over my house at 11pm

Anhinga circling for multiple minutes with good binocular views

White-faced Ibises flying over at 10pm

Purple Finch (shared with many observers)

Chestnut-sided Warbler took up residence for a bit of a summer

Mountain Chickadees are nice this far away from the Foothills

Clay-colored and Brewer's Sparrows during Spring snowstorms

Favorite species?

Swainson's Hawks that nest nearby and hunt snakes in our backyard

Great Horned Owls hunting for those same snakes

Most memorable experience?

Definitely the Upland Sandpiper... totally unexpected and wasn't particularly "birding" at 11pm

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

Suburban Longmont in the flyway between McIntosh Lake and Union Reservoir

Hope others continue this thread.  It is fascinating!  Thanks Thomas for starting it.

Thanks,

Bryan

Bryan Guarente

Meteorologist/Instructional Designer

UCAR/The COMET Program

Boulder, CO

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/0d5f941b-51ad-4dfa-b134-18e1ecc03540n%40googlegroups.com.

[William Wuerthele]

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 

[tom none]

I am a recent Colorado immigrant (two years in west Loveland) so my yard list is not impressive at 128.  I have , however, had a few high points.  Best diversity day - 34 spp; best bird - 100 -125 pinyon jays visiting almost daily, typically 2 or 3 times/day; favorite bird - bushtit; most memorable day - had pinyon jay, blue jay, Steller's jay and scrub jay in view at the same time; best season - had 40-50 evening grosbeaks, 100+ Cassin's finches, and the pinyon jays around all of last winter (sometime all three times at once) 

Have fun,

Tom Curtis

On Monday, March 11, 2024 at 10:40:41 AM UTC-6 Thomas Heinrich wrote:

[Thomas Heinrich]

Thanks, Bryan, for setting up a google sheet for all to access and contribute to! And thanks for sharing your amazing sighting from your yard. I was aware of the Anhinga, but not the others.

I've been compiling results on an Excel spreadsheet as lists come in from around the state, including names and locations (town, and county), and in some cases with rarer species keeping track of how many sightings there are.  

I'm still interested in receiving birders' lists directly to include the other stats, if you'd like to share those with me.

As of now, the list I have is at 264 species, and probably soon to be close to 300 once I add some species from lists I received in the last day or so.

It's been exciting to see this develop over the last few days.  Still hoping to hear from Ted Floyd, Duane Nelson, and some listers down south, --nudge, nudge-- :-) 

All the best, 

Thomas

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAENnWHvokU-KYH%2B_fUZ0eHiTL6YEHF58kBpbzZr0iothHUitVA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Thomas Heinrich]

Hi all,

Just wanted to give a quick update on the list, which now stands at 323 species. Thanks to everyone who's shared their lists and contributed to this thread. 

Bryan has very kindly offered to merge the two lists (the Google docs with the Excel spreadsheet I've been using). Hope to have it ready very soon. 

Thanks again, looking forward to seeing how this all develops, and glad so many are enjoying it,

Thomas

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

[Chuck Aid]

14 yrs

Moderate

99 spp

BTPI, SACR, CONI, WESO, ATTW, PEFA, PIJA, CLNU, PIGR, GCRF, BCRF, WWCR

NOGO spiral-chasing a pine squirrel up a Doug-fir; nesting SSHA, NOPO, and ATTW (weeks of good entertainment)

Densely forested Doug-fir/lodgepole with some pondersosa on a north-facing slope at 7800 ft (small scattering of aspen).  About a quarter of a mlle from Cub Creek, south of Evergreen.  Smaller, nearby ephemeral drainage about 150’ from my house has some blue spruce and larger aspen.

Chuck Aid

Evergreen, CO

On Monday, March 11, 2024 at 10:40:41 AM UTC-6 Thomas Heinrich wrote:

[Thomas Heinrich]

Hi all,

Getting a little carried away here, but I thought I'd write a quick update before getting some rest. (Hoping for a snow day tomorrow and a canceled rehearsal :-).

I spent several hours this evening mining for data on the CBRC pages on CFO's website (what a great resource, special thanks to Peter Gent, and others as well, certainly) and also on eBird. There's more to be found I'm sure, but another day...

The species total stands at 369, or roughly 71% of the species recorded in Colorado.

A couple of ideas occurred to me while preparing the list to be merged with Bryan's community-generated or crowd-sourced Google doc.

One is the potential desire for anonymity. I have been gathering only 3 sets of data in addition to the species: name of the lister (or property owner), city, and county. If anyone would like to remain anonymous, please let me know. I can change the entry to read: "homeowner".

I think it would be nice to include as many of us in the list (as viewers) as possible, because it really is a community effort. I'll do my best to make sure all who have contributed by submitting lists, or replied to this thread have at least several species entries.

I decided not to try to add dates for each sighting in an effort to keep it simple. 

If you have any suggestions, feel free to email me. I'll send out a list of species not yet ticked, in case that might be useful. Still trying to get around to replying to all directly, but it might be a few days yet.

Thanks again to all who have contributed!   

Sincerely,

Thomas

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

[mvjo...@gmail.com]

Hey Thomas and all. A fun exercise for us dedicated yard watchers. 

28 years of watching

163 species currently

Prairie Warbler

Palm Warbler

Long-eared Owl

Black throated Sparrow

Bobolink

Long-billed Curlew

We own our property south of Monte Vista and not far from the Refuge. Our backyard BIG DAY is 38 species. 

We now add one just every few years. Latest were 2 Blue jays. 

Lots of fun to look back!

John Rawinski

Monte Vista, CO

[Jeff Kehoe]

I'm in Larimer County on the Big Thompson River.

7 years
moderate birder - lots of feeders year round
83 species
most memorable - wave of migrating Western Tanagers in May stopped by a snowstorm
foothills riparian  habitat - 1 acre

Some Favorites - always hard
-----------------------
American Dipper - regular visitor
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Evening Grosbeak
Red Crossbill
Indigo Bunting
Green-tailed Towhee
Red-headed Woodpecker
Great Egret

Canyon Wren - picking bugs from spider webs on the porch

[Jason Beason]

Very interesting discussion! Thank you Mr. Heinrich for initiating this!

My family and I lived near Paonia for 13 years (2004-2017) in Delta County. My list is all historical information since I moved to Wyoming. We owned 10 acres that crossed the North Fork of the Gunnison River at the northwest corner of the property at approximately 5500' elevation. Lots of large cottonwood trees (narrowleaf, Fremont, and hybrids) and dense understory of buffalo berry, box elder, willow etc along the river. Also, a small marsh and beaver pond where we saw River Otters a couple times. I received a grant to plant one acre of shrubs along the river which was fun to watch grow during the years we were there.

Dedicated birding

192 species

Lots of favorites and some rare (in order most recent to oldest):

Favorite: We managed a profitable small farm (everything we grew was legal!) with five greenhouses that we built ourselves named Rain Crow Farm after the Yellow-billed Cuckoo. We heard and saw cuckoos frequently during the summer months and I eventually was able to start a small project when I worked for Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory/Bird Conservancy of the Rockies conducting surveys on the west slope of Colorado. We were lucky to confirm breeding near Hotchkiss and found an active nest in 2008. The species was listed as "threatened" by the USFWS west of the continental divide in 2014.

Rare or unusual species list:

Magnolia Warbler

Common Ground Dove (6th state record)

Nashville Warbler

Black Phoebe

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Long-billed Curlew

Bohemian Waxwing (irruption winter of 2013)

Common Redpoll (irruption winter of 2012)

American Goshawk

Canada Jay (unusual away from spruce-fir habitat)

Indigo Bunting

White-winged Dove

Northern Pygmy-Owl

Black-and-white Warbler

Eastern Bluebird

Juniper Titmouse (lots of PJ nearby)

Willow Flycatcher

Gray Flycatcher

Yellow-throated Vireo

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Sage Thrasher

Harris's Sparrow

Virginia Rail

Pinyon Jay

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Cassin's Vireo

Purple Martin (breed on Grand Mesa nearby)

Black Swift

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch

American Dipper

Bewick's Wren

Black-crowned Night Heron

Bobolink

Lark Bunting

Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch

White-throated Sparrow

Pygmy Nuthatch

Swamp Sparrow

American Redstart

Dickcissel (not sure how many west slope records there are but one was singing a couple days in June of 2006 near our pasture)

Band-tailed Pigeon (flocks would fly over the river often)

Green Heron

Lewis's Woodpecker (not at all rare in this area, bred in my front yard most years we were there)

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Barn Owl

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Mammals: Mountain Lion (killed a couple of our goats and I saw one once while birding along the river), River Otter, Mink, Black Bear (killed many of our and neighbors chickens)

Most memorable experience?

Seeing and hearing a Vaux's Swift on 5/3/2007 near the river. No photo or recording was obtained so the record was not accepted by CBRC.

Good Birding!

Jason Beason

(Currently in Lander, WY where my yard list is up to 129 species!)

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[linda hodges]

Jason, what marvelous experiences you must have had on your Paonia-area farm (a special part of CO, in my opinion.)

Thank you for sharing your list, and especially for the work you did to vegetate the area along the river.

And also for alerting me/us to the YBCU moniker of Rain Crow. That was news to me.

Black Swifts, mountain lions and river otters, oh my!

Linda

Linda Hodges

Colorado Springs

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[Thomas Heinrich]

Hi all,

Another quick update on the lists. In addition to the 350 species on Google list that Bryan has set up, I have another 26 species from birders who have sent lists directly to me.

So the current total # of species:  376 

Getting close to 400!

I hope to have the list I'm compiling wrapped up this weekend and off to Bryan to merge with his Google sheet. The list will include names and counties. Please let me know if you would prefer to remain anonymous. Also, if there is a particular species (or couple of species) that you ticked off on Bryan's list that you would like to have your name next to on the new list, please let me know. I'll be attempting to include all who have contributed to the list in an equitable way. 

Thanks again to all who have shared and contributed,

Thomas 

[Norm Lewis]

Good morning Thomas - In my yard, located on the north side of Green Mountain in Lakewood, I have seen 133 species.  By far the most notable was a bronzed cowbird.  This bird appeared at a neighbor's feeders in June of 1990, and stayed at that location (about a mile from my house) long enough for many birders to see it.  To my surprise, one morning it showed up at my feeders, but did not linger long.  Other birds that are unusual, either because of season or geography, included juniper titmouse, band-tailed pigeon (which I found roosting on my back step on a frigid winter morning), orchard oriole, canyon wren, common poorwill, purple finch, red crossbill, all three rosy-finches, northern shrike, red-naped sapsucker, eastern screech/northern pygmy/saw-whet owls, indigo bunting, Carolina wren, brown thrasher and summer tanager.

The most interesting event observed in the yard was a northern shrike killing a rosy-finch and stashing it in a lilac bush.

Thanks for the interesting project!

Norm Lewis

Lakewood 

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[Norm Lewis]

PS- my yard list dates to 1988.

Norm

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[Norm Lewis]

PPS- I should have read the directions a little morel closely- I would say I fall into the obsessed category- I keep 10-15 feeders active, depending upon the season, and have a semi-wild area on my back hill, as I live in a little valley and the upper back yard areas on the street are not developed, which gives me about an eighth of an acre of mixed trees and brush.

Whew.  I think that's all!

Norm

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[Diana Beatty]

For people who are in to yard listing and/or citizen science, you might be interested in a new gadget.

I recently bought a haikubox.  This is a box you plug in to an external outlet at your home and it constantly listens for birds and uses your wifi. You use an app or website to see what it hears.  It records short intervals and you can listen and verify accuracy .  It keeps ongoing data you can download or track online.  It shares the data with Cornell Labs and the haikubox network.    

Diana Beatty

El Paso County

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1833203312.5578826.1710602628985%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Gregg Goodrich]

Thomas

Great thread! Thanks for starting it. So fun to read about the birds seen from everyone’s yards. No new species for the list, but here are my highlights.

How long:  8 years

Style:  At least one eBird list everyday we are home.

Number:  100 species

Rarest:  Lewis’s Woodpecker, Spotted Sandpiper in creek, Cassin’s Kingbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Memorable:  Bohemian Waxwings. After seeing them in several locations around the metro area the first of last year, they finally made it to our yard. I had six sightings from the yard between January 27, 2023 and February 7, 2023. The largest count was around 250. On a walk at the end of the block I had a yard with over 800.

Like Duane, I have had fun birds while shoveling the snow. Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese and Peregrine Falcon flyovers.

 

Location: Our Highlands Ranch home’s back deck faces a riparian open space with a small creek.  5820’

Gregg Goodrich

Highlands Ranch in Douglas County

[Chris Petrizzo]

Hello Thomas and everyone,

Thanks for the fun thread. I see that I can help you "tick off" one of the currently missing species: Tundra Swan. https://ebird.org/checklist/S61420925

I live on the edge of the Lac Amora Open Space in Broomfield at about 5400’, and am fortunate to have a prairie dog colony outside my backyard, and am in close proximity to Stearns Lake in Boulder County, just to the north.

I’m a pretty dedicated yard lister, and in the 5 years I’ve been using eBird to keep my yard list, I’ve logged 130 species, including all three species of bluebirds, both shrikes, the four hummers, over a dozen species of sparrows, both waxwings, and just about all the diurnal raptors that typically occur in CO.

My most memorable yard bird was the time I looked outside to see what appeared to be a Redtail sitting on my back lawn. This was a bit strange, and as I stared at the bird, it became apparent it was too big to be a hawk, and I realized there was a Golden Eagle on my lawn. I took photos from the house at first, and then steeped outside, assuming it would fly away, but it did not. It became apparent the bird was injured, so I captured it (I used to volunteer for Birds of Prey Foundation), and brought it to Birds of Prey https://ebird.org/checklist/S165144647

Probably my rarest bird occurred when we had just returned from Australia, and I was sort of lamenting to my wife how in general, the birds in Colorado are so much less colorful than the ones we’d been seeing on our trip, when I looked out my living room window to see a male Scarlet Tanager in the yard. That was good fun. https://ebird.org/checklist/S56817229

Chris Petrizzo, Broomfield

[Larry Modesitt]

Thanks for the interesting fun, Thomas,

I have a cabin in Empire. At 8,600’ and with just 300 residents, it’s not very rural. My total is 71 for 16 years of too-frequent visits. I’m answering now, as it’s time to get over my jetlag. 

 

My most interesting month was from Sept 19, 2020 to October 3, when I saw 4 different jays—Pinyon, Blue, Woodhouse’s Scrub, and of course Steller’s. Earlier in the year, a Lewis’s Woodpecker was # 100 for the Clear Creek County, drinking from my birdbath. Thanks for Mark Obmascik for alerting me that a Rose-breasted Grosbeak was at my feeder. A Sagebrush Sparrow, first spotted on the first of CFO’s Big Day for conservation, was close enough to spot it from the yard.  

 

Larry Modesitt

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[Diana Beatty]

The two not filled yet that I am a little surprised by are Canada Jay and Cassin's Sparrow - I figure someone with a home in the right habitat will have had these as yard birds....

Diana Beatty

El Paso County

On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 8:46 AM Bryan Guarente <bryan.g...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAENnWHvokU-KYH%2B_fUZ0eHiTL6YEHF58kBpbzZr0iothHUitVA%40mail.gmail.com.

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“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

[ridgw...@gmail.com]

I just added Canada Jay to Bryan’s Google Doc.  I’ve had them in my yard in Ridgway a couple of times so add one more to our count.  I know George Steele in Norwood found the Ruddy Ground Dove in his yard, but he might not be in this group.

Don Marsh

Ridgway

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[Dan Zmolek]

We kept a ‘kitchen’ list for 11 years at our previous residence.  It was a pretty good location for birding, backing up directly to the Twin Lakes Boulder County open space, with an active ditch in between, keeping everything well watered. 

Our rules for the kitchen list were simple: one just had to be able to see the bird from the kitchen, from which we could see our small yard and most of the western portion of open space.  

So I’m not sure if all of our list would count as yardbirds in the general sense here.  For example, very early one wet spring morning, Leslie noted a wedge of Ibis circling over the dog park.  From the kitchen, we watched them land in the dog park, and decided to walk out to take a closer look, just-in-case.  And, as luck would have it, one of them did turn out to be a Glossy ; https://ebird.org/checklist/S89750316 .  Is it a yardbird if you have to leave the yard to make the ID?

Style of yard listing: obsessed

How many species : 104 , highlights:

Common Redpoll - we had spent nearly 10 years looking carefully at all of the feeder birds, hoping for, but never seeing one.  Hopes were raised one morning when we saw a very large group of Siskins mobbing the feeder.  ‘Today is the day’ I thought, and after watching our feeder for at least an hour, a rare bird alert came in for a Redpoll, with the location described as … right where our feeder is!  I ran outside and found the birder and bird just off to the east of our yard, but as the day progressed we finally had two Redpolls come into our yard multiple times.  

Long-eared Owl - one showed up two years in a row third weekend of October.  Once with a Harris’ Sparrow hanging out nearby.

Eastern Screech Owl - spent a day right outside the window.

Ring-necked Duck - surprising diver hanging out with the typical Mallards in the ditch.  

Mexican Duck - was in the same ditch, ebird approved : https://ebird.org/checklist/S110301490

American Redstart - seen bathing in the ditch, probably the best of many super-cool yard passerines.

Bohemian Waxwing - 2013 and 2023 observations. 

Location/habitat: suburban-rural interface 

Was a really nice location; we have also seen racoons, skunks, white-tailed deer, foxes, bobcats and even a bear once.  As an added benefit, we learned the name of every misbehaving dog in Boulder county as their owners shouted their names at them (honorable mention for the guy loudly and repeatedly calling ‘Wilson’ one night).  

Dan Zmolek

Longmont - formerly Gunbarrel

Boulder County