Fill in the Gaps at Cherry Creek!

[Joe Roller]

TS Elliott was certainly not a birder. 

When he wrote, "April is the cruellest (sic) month..." he was WRONG!

Birders know that February is the cruelest month. The excitement of the Christmas Bird Counts and the joy of starting a new Year List

are in the rear view mirror. The peak of spring migration is months away, and even March is an absolute bird-fest compared to dull February.

It's a challenge, but we birders can pull out a chair at the "fun table" for poor February. How? 

By taking on this worthy Challenge -  "Fill in the eBird Gaps!"

If you log onto eBird and find the Cherry Creek SP hotspot, then view the data in "Bar Chart" display, you'll notice GAPS in the data for the 

3rd week in February. Up until now NO BIRDER has reported any of the species on this list, so there is gap in the eBird data base. And we can't have that!

Nature abhors a vacuum.

These species have never been reported to eBird during the 3rd week in February at the hotspot named: "Cherry Creek SP" -- and many are NOT rare. Some

will be there when we start filling in the gaps next Wednesday.

Snow Goose

Double-crested Cormorant 

Western Grebe

Hairy Woodpecker

Merlin

Prairie Falcon

Eurasian Collared-Dove (easy peasy)

Woodhouses Scrub Jay

Mountain Chickadee

Bushtit

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Rudely-crowned Kinglet

Mountain Bluebird

American Pipit

Townsend's Solitaire

Lapland Longspur

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Harris's, White-throated and Lincoln's Sparrows.

Most of the birds on the list have been seen either the 2nd or 4th weeks in February, or both.

Those are just the likely ones. 

I left out Gyrfalcon, Prairire Warbler and all of the hummingbirds to make this easier for us.

So contact your birding friends, go to any part of the park, search high and low! Have a goal during fickle February. Fill in the gaps! 

AND, in case you need another incentive, consider this. You may have had it with standing in line to buy candy or flowers, and growing tired of your fingers sticking

together with glue, as you make your handmade red valentine with the lace appliqué.

Fill in the Gaps is the perfect excuse to duck Valentine's Day this year.  Try this:

"Honey, this year let's celebrate Valentine's Day on February 25. On February 14th I'll be busy getting ready to Fill in the Gaps at Cherry Creek!

(Let me know how that works for you).

When you spot one of the above species or any less common birds that fill in a gap at CCSP, from the 15th through the 21st, please send a note to CObirds,

Regale us with your tales, so we can thrill as the gaps fill!

Joe Roller, Denver

[Karl Stecher Jr.]

Besides the meaning of TS's poem, remember that he wrote it in London, which is at the latitude of Calgary.  "Spring will be a little late this year" if you're there.

 

Karl Stecher

Centennial

 

 

 

---

From: "Joe Roller" <jrol...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2017 1:53 PM
To: "Colorado Birds" <cob...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [cobirds] Fill in the Gaps at Cherry Creek!

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