Monday, December 28, 2009

Georgetown Christmas Count

December 22, 2009

Richard Stevens: Bryan Ehlmann's report on the Georgetown CBC:

"Eight birders and five feeder watchers conducted the fourth consecutive Georgetown Christmas Count. Previous counts were conducted in early January; this year we wanted to get up Guanella Pass before it was closed. Recent predictions suggested that the road would receive several feet of snow in the next few days; therefore, we changed the date to today.

Richard Stevens, Jerry Petrosky and I took on the Guanella Pass task, as we did not know if snowshoeing would be necessary due to snow conditions. As it turned out, we were able to get to the top of Guanella Pass without snowshoes. Our route did require going up through Grant from Highway 285 as the route from Georgetown has been and will be closed for many months due to the rockslide.

Once we reached the top, nineteen White-tailed Ptarmigan were found below the huge rock 40 yards east of the road and approximately 400 yards south of the parking lot! Nasty weather rolled in from the west and we quickly got the heck out of there.

We dropped Jerry off in Denver and headed to Georgetown via I70.

Gary Weston's group went up to Loveland Pass and found two Ptarmigan in a two hour search. The birds were about 0.7 miles up the western trail. Scoping the eastern side and the western slope across from the first switchback south of the summit were unsuccessful today.

They also saw five Gray-crowned Rosy Finches and two American Pipits while plodding around in the deep snow.

Sue Ehlmann's group saw about 20 Gray-crowned Rosy Finches and 12 Brown-capped Rosy Finches on the cliffs north of Silver Plume. A local resident says she sees small flocks early two out of three early mornings.

Evening Grosbeaks and Red Crossbills were found in Georgetown. Also a pair of Pine Grosbeaks, Mountain and Black-capped Chickadees, and Pine Siskins.

Owling was hampered when the weather deteriorated rapidly after sunset. We strapped on snowshoes and went up the Saints John Trail for about half a mile, hearing a Northern Pygmy-Owl. We changed our minds about going up the Argentine Pass trail as it passes a well known avalanche chute about 3/4 a mile from the trailhead. The same is true for the Hunkidori trail which is usually good for a Boreal Owl.

Final species total so far is 43 species. I haven't heard from two feeder watchers yet. This total surpasses our previous high of 34. Finally results will be listed in February's "Colorado Field Notes"."

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