The sky was clear, the wind was blowing quite a bit, and then the wind blew harder.  Fortunately, our first visit was to a home in a somewhat sheltered valley, and we ended up getting great looks at a slew of Cassin’s Finches and a few Rosy-Finches.

One of our first stops was at a new access point to the north side of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal at Chambers and 96th Ave.  The highlight here was getting to see four Northern Harriers swooping down and around a juvenile Bald Eagle, which was on the ground surrounded by prairie dogs.

Ann Bonnell passed away this past month, appropriately enough right in the middle of this year’s Christmas Bird Counts (CBC). For many years she led the Vance Creek (Evans Ranch) area for the Evergreen-Idaho Springs CBC.

The 27th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a global four-day event, being held this year from Friday, February 16, through Monday, February 19, 2024.

For our 55th Christmas Bird Count we had an all-time high of 86 folks in the field recording 5,751 birds, including two new species – Lewis’s Woodpecker and Lapland Longspur. We also had 58 Feeder-Counters record an additional 1,758 birds.

When I initially picked mid-November as potentially a good time for catching the front end of the increased presence of winter raptors, specifically Northern Harriers, Bald Eagles, Ferruginous Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks, and Merlins, I anticipated that weather conditions might be slightly wintery.  However, the weather for mid-November this year turned out to be exceedingly mild resulting in a bit less action than hoped for.