Who's missing? Where did they go?
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Hugh Kingery
Nov 5, 2013, 5:56:50 PM11/5/13
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Reporting on birds you DON'T see is a lot harder than talking about the ones you do see.
Douglas County: Castlewood Canyon State Park seems almost devoid of small birds -- we've hiked several trails on the west side, several times in the last 3 weeks and seen almost none to no chickadees, nuthatches, creepers, scrub-jays, and the like. The ponderosas have no cones, the douglasfirs appear to have shed their seeds if not their cones, so these little guys can't find anything to eat in the Park.
Jefferson County: We had the same experience on Genesee Mountain 4 weeks ago -- and also noticed a lack of conifer cones.
Jefferson County: Denver Audubon's Walk the Wetlands (south end of Chatfield State Park) recorded 22 species on Sunday compared with 35 on last year's walk. Individuals dropped too (if you exclude a circling flock of 65 Ring-billed Gulls) from 213 to 130 birds. A lot of Sunday's birds came to the Nature Center feeders. I don't know what the natural food situation is along the South Platte, but bird diversity & numbers seem to have dropped there too.
Douglas County: At our feeders we see about the normal variety, but not as many birds as last winter. I would expect woodsy birds to flock to the feeders if they can't find natural food. Compared with last year in October, this year we counted fewer W. Scrub-Jays, Spotted Towhees & juncos (3/4 as many of each), the same number of chickadees, nuthatches, & woodpeckers. Last year (and for several years before that) Blue Jays (which do not breed here) arrived in late August and thronged us throughout the winter; we averaged 5 in October & 6 in November. This year they didn't even show up until Oct. 1, and the paltry few that have visited apparently left in late October.
What do other Cobirders NOT see on some of their regular patches?
Did the missing birds move out onto the plains or into the metro area, go south, or simply disappear?
Arapahoe County: Karen Metz commented, "Western Scrub-Jays have been moving to the western edge of the plains. I saw one at the Plains Conservation Center on Saturday (my first-ever siting of that species in my 9 years of volunteering there), and a nearby resident told me he’d not observed that species until this past week – and is seeing several."
Douglas County: Castlewood Canyon State Park seems almost devoid of small birds -- we've hiked several trails on the west side, several times in the last 3 weeks and seen almost none to no chickadees, nuthatches, creepers, scrub-jays, and the like. The ponderosas have no cones, the douglasfirs appear to have shed their seeds if not their cones, so these little guys can't find anything to eat in the Park.
Jefferson County: We had the same experience on Genesee Mountain 4 weeks ago -- and also noticed a lack of conifer cones.
Jefferson County: Denver Audubon's Walk the Wetlands (south end of Chatfield State Park) recorded 22 species on Sunday compared with 35 on last year's walk. Individuals dropped too (if you exclude a circling flock of 65 Ring-billed Gulls) from 213 to 130 birds. A lot of Sunday's birds came to the Nature Center feeders. I don't know what the natural food situation is along the South Platte, but bird diversity & numbers seem to have dropped there too.
Douglas County: At our feeders we see about the normal variety, but not as many birds as last winter. I would expect woodsy birds to flock to the feeders if they can't find natural food. Compared with last year in October, this year we counted fewer W. Scrub-Jays, Spotted Towhees & juncos (3/4 as many of each), the same number of chickadees, nuthatches, & woodpeckers. Last year (and for several years before that) Blue Jays (which do not breed here) arrived in late August and thronged us throughout the winter; we averaged 5 in October & 6 in November. This year they didn't even show up until Oct. 1, and the paltry few that have visited apparently left in late October.
What do other Cobirders NOT see on some of their regular patches?
Did the missing birds move out onto the plains or into the metro area, go south, or simply disappear?
Arapahoe County: Karen Metz commented, "Western Scrub-Jays have been moving to the western edge of the plains. I saw one at the Plains Conservation Center on Saturday (my first-ever siting of that species in my 9 years of volunteering there), and a nearby resident told me he’d not observed that species until this past week – and is seeing several."
Hugh Kingery
Franktown, CO
Franktown, CO
Libby Edwards
Nov 6, 2013, 7:53:17 PM11/6/13
to ouz...@aol.com, cob...@googlegroups.com
This was a very interesting email and I have also noted the lack of some normal birds. What we do have every day for about a week now are Stellar's Jays at our feeders near the foothills in Fort Collins. Also today on Reservoir Ridge I saw a flock of about 6 Stellar's and this is really unusual. Can anyone comment on this? I also saw several American Tree sparrows. I have seen several (FOS) Scrub Jays in the foothills and at Soapstone. We do not have many juncos per normal but we do have a regular group of about 3 blue jays. Normally we have Scrub Jays at the feeders and I haven't seen any yet.
Libby Edwards
Fort Collins
Larimer County
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