Mineral and San Juan Counties

[Roger Linfield]

May snowstorms can bring good birds to mountain counties.  The past three days were especially good in southwest Colorado.

Mineral County  May 7

Western Grebe (10 total in three lakes)

Great Egret - a lone bird looking very out of place at the western end of the western reservoir on CO-149, near the Hinsdale line

Wood Duck - Meadow Lake Reservoir on FR 523

Northern Rough-winged Swallow (pond on south side of CO-149)

Northern Mockingbird (near Creede sewage ponds, within 100' of where I saw one May 1, 2010)

Clay-colored Sparrow (near Creede sewage ponds)

San Juan County

May 8

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Lark Sparrow (1 near Silverton visitor center)

White-throated Sparrow (1 with a flock of White-crowned in willows at the edge of town)

Western Meadowlark (1 near Silverton visitor center - it only stayed a minute or two)

Brown-headed Cowbird (30 total; I had only seen one in the county before this trip)

Common Grackle (5)

A flock of Rosy-Finches steadily grew in size during the day, from about 50 to 150.  They moved around the

central parts of Silverton.

May 9 (after six inches of snow overnight)

Ruddy Duck (Silverton sewage ponds)

The Rosy-Finch flock was now up to several hundred, with many of them crowding into a yard with feeders.

I was able to pick out two Gray-crowned and five Black, among the Brown-capped.  The ones who couldn't

find any open ground near the feeders were flying around just outside the yard, occasionally landing on me.

Roger Linfield

Boulder