Westcliffe CBC results on Jan 3rd

[Brandon]

Eight birders covered the Westcliffe CBC circle in Custer County yesterday, it was a nice day, weather wise, with recent snow cover throughout the circle.

41 species of birds were found on the count.  Owling efforts at 4:30am produced 2 Northern Saw-whet Owls (new for the count) - it was 7 degrees at the time, and a Great Horned Owl.  Some of the other highlights for this count: 2 Canada Goose, 3 Lewis's Woodpecker, 2 American Robins, 1 Pine Grosbeak, and 22 Evening Grosbeaks, these are the species that have been found less than 20 times for the count, according to the CBC Website.  This count doesn't have a lot of birds usually, the most common birds this year were 267 Horned Larks, 168 House Sparrows, and 111 American Crows.  It was nice to have 9 Rough-legged Hawks and 4 Brown-capped Rosy-Finches (sometimes there are a lot of rosy-finches around).

Brandon Percival
Pueblo West, CO