Black Forest CBC (Douglas, El Paso, Elbert)

[Hugh Kingery]

    On the Black Forest Christmas bird count, on Jan. 3, we covered the usual places with the usual amount of effort, so I think we can fairly compare to prior years. My records show this as the 50th count, with the first one in 1957 -- initiated by Dick Beidleman.

    This year we counted 34 species, 1156 individuals, both below the averages of  35 species & 1574 individuals.

    We found more than the average for these species: Downy, Hairy, & Flicker; Steller's, magpie, and both chickadees; White-breasted & Pygmy nuthatches; and Red-winged Blackbirds. We had an almost record for Black-capped Chickadee (46 -- in 2012 we had 47.

    We recorded below average numbers for crow, Horned Lark, Red-breasted Nuthatch, starling, and House Sparrows (none this year).

    In our section the ponderosas had no cones, so the count of Pygmies (132) surprised us; the count has had as many as 180. The count this year recorded no crossbills.

Hugh Kingery, Compiler.