Each year as part of our annual winter banquet we announce the Bear Creek Watershed Bird-of-the-Year for the prior year and honor those folks who successfully completed our annual Birding Challenge.

Often in mid-winter the reservoirs of eastern Colorado can become largely or, in the case of the smaller reservoirs, completely frozen over.  At that time waterfowl tend to congregate in large numbers on the main rivers and creeks.  The South Platte just north of downtown Denver appears to be particularly attractive.

While through the course of our 54-year history we’ve averaged about 5,800 birds representing 47 species, this year we recorded about 8,800 birds representing 50 species. And, we added a species never recorded before on our Christmas Bird Count – Pacific Wren.

In 2016, to commemorate 100 years of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Evergreen Audubon initiated its Annual Birding Challenge, hoping that through goal setting and competition more folks would be inclined to work on their bird identification skills and come to know our birds more intimately.

While this time of year is always a bit slower, now that fall migration is winding down, this can be a great time to be a beginning birder – not so many leaves to hide the birds and most of the waterfowl are already in breeding plumage ready for next year’s breeding season.