Loveland CBC results

[Denise B.]

We had a very interesting, productive Christmas Bird Count in Loveland on January 1 – unseasonably warm weather with no snow on the ground, no wind, and most water bodies completely ice-free.  We recorded high counts for several bird species, and recruited a record number of volunteers!  To delve into the details a bit, we logged 107 species on January 1; one more (Greater Scaup) was seen during count week.  For comparison, last year we ended up with 107 species, and an additional 4 species during count week.

 

Our 113 volunteers, approximately 30 of them new to our CBC, reported that they walked or hiked 173 miles and drove 378 miles. They spent more than 190 hours trying to find and count birds on New Year’s Day. Twenty-five feeder watchers spent almost 84 hours watching their feeders and birdbaths.  

 

Three new species were seen during this year’s CBC – American White Pelican, Orchard Oriole, and Golden-crowned Sparrow.  High counts for the 26 years of the Loveland CBC were recorded for Pied-billed Grebe (10), Great Horned Owl (52), Merlin (5), Say’s Phoebe (5), Bushtit (234, previous high 111), White-crowned Sparrow (427), Spotted Towhee (65), and Red-winged Blackbird (4488).  We logged five species of grebes– Pied-billed, Eared, Horned, Red-necked, and Western, and four species of owls – Great Horned, Eastern Screech, Northern Pygmy, and Northern Saw-whet.  We counted 18 Bonaparte Gulls this year. Until this year, we had seen only one Bonaparte’s on a CBC – fourteen years ago.  Several species were low in numbers – Golden Eagles (only 4), Rough-legged Hawk (only 1), Great Blue Heron (only 9).  We saw no Ferruginous Hawks (but understand they were plentiful on the Rawhide CBC).  We counted over 21,000 geese and over 46,000 birds in total.