Initially, weather for the 2024 Christmas Bird Count was a bit nippy with morning temps for the Elk Management Area and Mestaa’ehehe Pass in the upper teens, but by early afternoon temps throughout the count circle were in the low 40s.  Wind was a slight factor all day with even the lowest areas reporting gusts up to 15 mph while the higher elevations got up to 40 mph.  And, while there was up to two feet of snow at the higher elevations, most areas had very little to contend with.

As for results, our 75 folks in the field recorded 5,076 birds and our 51 feeder-counters recorded an additional 1,485 for a grand total of 6,561 birds.  In 2023, for comparison, 86 folks in the field counted 5,751 birds and 58 feeder-counters recorded 1,758 for a total of 7,509 birds.  So, we had fewer participants this year and fewer birds.  I don’t know if there’s a correlation to be made there or not, but it is something to be aware of.  With regard to getting out and really covering the territory on foot special commendations go to the Brook Forest East team that logged 12.7 miles and the Mestaa’ehehe team that trecked 15.7 miles.  Kudos to those guys!

So, moving on, what kind of numbers did we end up with in 2024?  For starters we missed a few species that we get with some regularity, though not every time, such as Canada Goose, Bushtit, Cedar Waxwing, and American Tree Sparrow.  We also had low numbers for several species such as Canada Jay, Evening Grosbeak, Pine Grosbeak, Cassin’s Finch, Red Crossbill, American Goldfinch, and Dark-eyed Junco.  That being said, we set (or tied) our previous high numbers for Northern Saw-whet Owl (1), American Three-toed Woodpecker (8), Northern Shrike (5), and White-breasted Nuthatch (192).  Just in case you were wondering, last year we set a new high for Brown Creeper at 46, but this year we only got a paltry 44.  Incidentally, our count of 46 in 2023 was the high count for the whole state.

Additionally, for this year we had several species that merit special recognition.  First of all, without the Idaho Springs West team we would have been skunked on Eurasian Collared-Doves, nuff said. Then, the Upper Bear Creek team found three Golden Eagles and a Northern Saw-whet Owl, while the Brook Forest East team found a single American Goshawk, and the Brook Forest West team found 6 American Three-toed Woodpeckers.  Meanwhile the Bergen Park and Clear Creek teams found a couple of American Kestrels, and the Clear Creek team also managed to find a Canyon Wren.   Several areas contributed to us coming up with 24 American Dippers.  This number is of interest because from 2013-2020 we averaged only about 9 Dippers per count, so we’ve been experiencing a bit of a resurgence these last four years.  Once again, the importance of having a strong Mestaa’ehehe team was evidenced by their doing so well with Evening Grosbeak, Black Rosy-Finch, Brown-capped Rosy-Finch and Red Crossbill.  Finally, without our feeder-counters we would have entirely missed getting Pine Grosbeak and Spotted Towhee this year.

You may recall that we are in a friendly competition with over 2500 other CBCs across the Western Hemisphere regarding our numbers of Mountain Chickadees and Pygmy Nuthatches.  We have been Mountain Chickadee world champs for fifteen years running, and we’ve been Pygmy Nuthatch world champs a few times in that same period.  Last year’s 1,062 Mountain Chickadees and 1,322 Pygmy Nuthatches were the highest numbers recorded hemispherically, and with this year’s 1,022 Mountain Chickadees and 1,510 Pygmy Nuthatches we are well placed to retain our global dominance. 

In getting things organized for this year, special thanks go out to those folks who stepped in at the last minute to create, or support, a team and made sure all our areas were adequately covered: Riley and Heather Morris took over the Genesee area, and strong additional support was provided by Hannah Criswell, Felice Lyons, Barbara Jean Gard, Susan and Bill Broderick, and Holly and Chris Marr.  Much gratitude to all of you!  Additional thanks go to all of our other regular area leaders who got their crews through the day: JoAnn Hackos, Else Van Erp, Emma Vasicek, Megan and Kyle Schulze, Ed Furlong, David Wald, Kathy Madison, Cam Carver, Ron Belak, Dwight Souder, Keri Bowling, and Larry White.  And special thanks to our Feeder-Counter Coordinators, Barbara Jean Gard and Chris Marr.

Finally, it was wonderful to, once again, end our day of bird counting with a glorious evening of good fellowship, great food, and LIVELY data compilation at our Tally Rally.  Truly a wonderful end to the day!  Many thanks go to Lisa and David Wald for hosting the Tally Rally; to Rachel Hutchison, Holly Marr, and Lisa Wald for making the chili; to Chris Marr for bringing chairs, tables, and the PA system, to Janet Warner, Kathy Madison, Steve Garman, Carol Burdick, Tom Ryon and Melissa Leasia for handling KP duties and being greeters/cleanup, to Holly Marr for being the Tally Rally head honcho, to all those who contributed to the potluck, and to Chris Marr for helping compile our field data that evening.

Bird species observed during the 2024 Evergreen-Idaho Springs Christmas Bird Count, the average number seen from 1969 to 2023, and the high count and year recorded for each species.  Bolded entries are high counts recorded in 2024.