Clear Creek Crossbills: 84 species

[Nathan Pieplow]

The Crossbills crushed it in Clear Creek County yesterday. 

It's safe to say we didn't expect anywhere near the 84 species we got for the Colorado Birding Challenge (162% of par, almost enough to beat the Grand County team). But it was an amazing day of migration in the high country. Every strip of riparian willows was bursting with warblers. The fields were full of sparrows. Raptors were on the move over the mountains.

The biggest highlight was the Magnolia Warbler we found at Alvarado Open Space Park, a first record for the county. Other terrific finds included a Nashville Warbler, multiple Clay-colored Sparrows, a Northern Pygmy-Owl, Eastern and Western Kingbirds, Western Bluebird, and Lesser Goldfinch. We finished the day with a Boreal Owl on the road to Guanella Pass.

Given the lack of surface water in the county, we were pretty happy with our haul of three duck species and one shorebird, although it would have been nice to get a goose or a heron. We finished without a single blackbird or swallow.

Enormous thanks to our donors. As promised, we named a bird after each and every one, from Ashley the Osprey to Peter the pygmy-owl. We've sent individual thank-you emails with photos embedded or linked.

https://charity.pledgeit.org/2025COBC/teams/@crossbills

There's still time to donate and get a bird named after YOU!

Nathan Pieplow

Boulder

[wren_canyon]

I enjoy reading the reports from the CFO fund-raising big days! Thank you, Nathan, for naming an EAGLE after me. My friends will get a kick out of that since I often joke about "Yes, we've seen the f'n Bald Eagle."

I like that we can still sponsor groups for several days yet...https://charity.pledgeit.org/2025COBC