Park County drive through Jan 20

[David Suddjian]

Sorry for the slow reporting...on Jan 20 I took a mountain vista drive through Park County with my family, birding mostly incidentally along Hwys 24 and 285. I did not look at any of the reservoirs, which I imagine were all frozen.

At South Park I spotted 5 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS in 4 locations. NORTHERN SHRIKES were at Divide and Hartzel. Single CLARK'S NUTCRACKERS were at Wilkerson Pass and Kenosha Pass. A pond near the parking area for 63 Ranch SWA was surprsingly ice-free and had 9 species of ducks, with a pair of HOODED MERGANSERS perhaps being of the most interest (at least the count was flagged on my eBird checklist as a "high count"). An AMERICAN DIPPER was at some open patches of the mostly iced-topped South Platte near Grant.

Around St. Mary of the Rockies Church at Crow Hill (or is the community Deer Creek?), off Hwy 285 there was a juv. NORTHERN GOSHAWK, a NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL, and a flight of 347 AMERICAN CROWS moving from the Denver direction toward a roost further upslope even from where I was viewing. I've been observing some similar movements to/from roosts in the higher mountains by birds commuting from mountain roosts to the Metro Area. Why are they apparently roosting up high?

David Suddjian

Littleton