Wilson's Snipe

MONTE VISTA — The Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge held their annual Christmas Bird Count Dec. 14, 2019, in the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado.
Fiften people (five teams) spent a total of six hours birding and covered over 240 miles on the count. Two families participated by watching their feeders for about seven hours. Weather conditions during the day were warmish with partly cloudy skies and no wind. The day started out at 15 degrees farenheit and rose to a balmy 45°F. We covered most of the 176 square miles of circle.
This year’s numbers were above average. A total of 56 species were documented and 3283 individuals. Sixty-three species is still the record. Best birds were all three Rosy-finch, Cassin’s Finch, Greater Yellowlegs, Peregrine Falcon and Ring-neck Duck. During the count week, three Clark’s Nutcrackers were reported. New to the Count is Lewis’s Woodpecker. This bird has only been report twice in the winter in our area!
I sent our information to the National Audubon to be included in the National Christmas Bird Count. The website (http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/) is easy to access and you can see how we have done in years past as far as the numbers go.
Thank you to all of you who helped with this year’s count, see you next time in December 2020. I encourage all you backyard feeder watchers to again participate.
The following is a summary list of species and individual numbers of each that were documented during the 2020 event:
127    American Crow    
28    American Goldfinch
4    American Kestrel
2    American Robin    
31    American Tree Sparrow
3    Bald Eagle
1    Belted Kingfisher
3    Black Rosy-Finch
187    Black-billed Magpie
24    Black-capped Chickadee    
2    Brown Creeper
115    Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
131    Canada goose
9    Cassin’s Finch
2    Clark’s Nutcracker
212    Common Raven
1    Cooper’s Hawk
95    Dark-eyed Junco
107    Eurasian Collared-dove
636    European Starling
2    Golden Eagle
2    Gray-crowned Rosy-finch
8    Great Blue Heron
11    Great Horned Owl
12    Great-tailed Grackle
3    Greater Yellowlegs
1    Hairy Woodpecker
179    Horned Lark
122    House Finch
448    House Sparrow
1    Lewis’ Woodpecker
101    Mallard    
9    Marsh Wren
10    Mountain Chickadee
2    Mourning Dove
6    Northern Flicker
19    Northern Harrier
3    Northern Pintail    
3    Northern Shrike
1    Peregrine Falcon
20    Pine Siskin
1    Prairie Falcon
17    Red-breasted Nuthatch
31    Red-tailed Hawk
305    Red-winged Blackbird
3    Ring-necked Duck
124    Rock Pigeon
1    Rough-legged Hawk
1    Ruddy Duck
91    Song Sparrow
4    Steller’s Jay
3    Townsend’s Solitaire
10    Western Meadowlark
2    White-breasted Niuthatch
6    White-crowned Sparrow
2    Wilson’s Snipe