Park, Jefferson, Arapahoe on Jan 9

[David Suddjian]

I visited Park Co from late morning to early afternoon, adding a bundle of eBird checklists for an other week that had been without any complete checklists. I encountered several species of interest for Park in winter, or in good numbers for that county, but I think the only rarity of broader interest was 4 White-winged Crossbills at Alma.

At home in Jefferson County the Cassin's Finches visiting my feeders swelled to about 50 individuals today. The Golden-crowned Sparrow was at Red Rocks Trading Post, and three Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches were on the rock slope there during my visit. 

South Platte Reservoir has been the only body of open water in the area for a while now, other than the South Platte River itself. The reservoir's Arapahoe portion is mostly open water with an ice shelf, while the Jeffco corner is frozen. There are nice gull flocks there and numbers into the 1000s on some late afternoons, presumably roosting. Species noted on some of the last several days have included Lesser Black-backed, Thayer's and Glaucous. When I visited today the flock was still smallish (low 100s), as it was before the arrival of most roosting birds. But there was an adult Mew Gull in the flock. And a Peregrine Falcon came barreling through a scattered all the gulls. I imagine they came back. Two male Barrow's Goldeneyes were also present.

David Suddjian

Littleton, CO