I had the pleasure of joining Warren Roske, long-time Evergreen Audubon member, on a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science this past July. Although we planned to see the dioramas of Colorado on the third floor, we had an appointment with the museum archivist.  Warren was donating his summaries of Evergreen Lake bird monitoring, twenty consecutive years of bird monitoring data.  

Warren told me that he and Loie Evens walked around the lake an average of three days a week and posted their bird observations on the Evergreen Audubon board along the boardwalk. They started in November of 2003. The pair took over for Bill Brockner who had been posting his bird sightings at Evergreen Lake for many years prior. 

Warren and his wife, Pat, moved to Evergreen in 1984 when he transferred with Northwest Bell Telephone Company. Warren and Pat would join Loie as well as Bill and Sylvia Brockner for regular breakfast meetings and soon made many close friends. They would meet at the River Sage and other local restaurants and often the conversations would turn to birds and birding. The group began taking trips to many local and out-of-state birding hotspots. Loie recalled joining the Brockners on a trip to Chatfield State Park where she was introduced to birding and the love of birds that the Brockners always shared.

Bill and Sylvia Brockner were founding members of the Evergreen Naturalists Audubon Society and were very familiar with the bird life around Evergreen Lake. Bill began to formalize his sightings and recorded his observations on a board north of the Lake House along the boardwalk, the same board that is there today. Maybe it’s because they had the same birthday, but at some point, Bill asked Warren to join him on his weekly walks around the lake.  

When Bill became unable to conduct the bird monitoring, Warren and Loie teamed up to continue what Bill had started. Fast forward to 2023 and the team had recorded 20 years of bird observations at the lake. Warren meticulously recorded the bird observations in a notebook that in 20 years, expanded into a large three-ring binder. He developed a master list of Evergreen Lake birds and a list of the 40 most common summer birds at the lake. He also noted that with the increase of the elk herd, the vegetation had changed and consequently the bird community had also changed over the 20 years. 

Several copies of Warren’s binder were made and are available in electronic and hardcopy format at the Evergreen Audubon Nature Center while the original resides at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Warren is glad that in donating his binder of bird observations, this information will be available for future study and he hopes to inspire continued interest in birds in Colorado’s Front Range mountains.

The monitoring at the lake continues. I took it over almost two years ago now. Next year, we will likely be replacing the wooden case that holds observation sheets as an Eagle Scout project. All members are invited to join me for a walk around the lake, send me an eBird checklist, or check out the board to see what birds are visiting. Contact me at Tom.Ryon@evergreenaudubon.org.