Black-throated Sparrow at Park County

[David Suddjian]

Today Gary Witt and I visited places in South Park, enjoying many birds and wonderful weather. A most unexpected find was a Black-throated Sparrow about 8 km northeast of the town of Hartsel. It seems it may be the first county record for Park. Records from the mountains of CO are exceptional in general, per eBird, with only a handful of records from that region of the state, and none in or adjacent to Park County. It was along Fitzsimmons Drive a short way north of Mesa Road. Some more details on this eBird checklist. 

https://ebird.org/checklist/S108866131

It was at about 9300' elevation in grassland with currant shrubs along the edge of an open stand of forest of Ponderosa and Douglas-fir. The checklist has a recording of it singing, and some nice pics by Gary Witt. I've included one of Gary's pics here. The same area had a large number of Pinyon Jays. We tallied 57 passing by.

Birding was fun all day along different roads and at some of the reservoirs. We also saw a late Rough-Legged Hawk along Hwy 285 Michigan Creek southwest of Jefferson. (A Swainson's was several miles further down the highway, as close as I've gotten to seeing both species together in CO...). Buffalo Creek Reservoir had a lot of birds and excellent early morning viewing. Well worth the stop. The southwest shore of Antero Reservoir was full of ducks, but not many shorebirds today. We did find 1 Snowy Plover and 10 Semipalmated Plovers. A Lesser Black-backed Gull was also there. 

David Suddjian

Ken Caryl Valley

Littleton, CO