Skip to main content

Cassin's Finch and Eastern Bluebirds!

Just a little update with a few nice Green Year Birds that I have gotten while I've been laying low at home while trying to recover from the shingles. 

January 11, 2020

Bryan Arnold posted on CO-Birds about a Cassin's Finch at his feeder, and lucky me, he lives a half mile away in my neighborhood! I'd been watching my feeders for a Cassin's, with no luck. I emailed Bryan and he invited me over to take look. I found the bird almost immediately! This was the first time I'd met Bryan (after a lot of emails about birds and cycling over the last couple years) and it was a real pleasure. Not only did I get Cassin's Finch, but we had a great time chatting at a distance, masked, on his sidewalk. It was a wonderful morning. I look forward to cycling and birding with Bryan sometime. This is what birding is all about.

Cassin's Finch was an early 2021 target as a few are still around town, which is fairly unusual. They'll be much harder to get once they return to the foothills (meaning a lot of going uphill on the bike to find one)! I'm so happy to have been able to get one so close to home!

It seems like every bird has a good story and this is no exception. I walked over to Bryan's with my real camera hoping for some nice photos, if I found the bird. I started taking photos of the Cassin's and was thrilled with the photo opp. I previewed the shots only to realize I never put the memory card back in! Fortunately the bird was quite cooperative and I managed a few digibin (phone binoc) photos (below).




Janet Shin had reported Eastern Bluebirds along Lilly Gulch on Saturday, January 9th. I'd seen bluebirds along that section of Lilly Gulch a few times right before the New Year (https://ebird.org/checklist/S78082732), but none since. I went over on the 9th and didn't find any and looked almost every day after that with no luck. Admittedly, some of these walks were too long and I felt pretty terrible afterwards. I'm stubborn. 

On January 12, I decided to go down to Weaver Park, just to the south of my house, where I'd seen bluebirds a couple times in December. There was also a report of a bird there a couple days earlier. I found a couple Townsend's Solitaires (green year bird!) that were calling and chasing each other and then at least 6, maybe 7, Eastern Bluebirds!! I obtained a couple digibin photos and they moved west along the creek and vanished. I am quite happy to have gotten Eastern Bluebird early in the year. I'll likely find some during the year, but that's not a given! I can now focus my energy on other rarities, once I'm able to ride my bike again. 
List with the bluebirds: https://ebird.org/checklist/S79138279

A poor digibin photo of a male Eastern Bluebird.

My Green species list now stands at 70 species. This is great for 2 legit days of birding and walking from my house while on the mend. Hopefully I can get on the bike next week, but I can't push it too much. This is a year long effort and I'm only 15 days in! I need to get healthy first.

Below is my current species list with info on where and when I saw the birds, and a couple eBird lists for fun.  I'll update this list for each post.
2021 Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year Species List


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Big ride for big time green year birds.

First and foremost, thank you for all the pledges and donations! The total pledges so far have been astonishing! Between donations and pledges per species (assuming I hit 250 species), we are about 70% of the way to our $20,000 target! I think Joe would probably roll his eyes and tell a joke about the time we chased what would be his first Arapahoe county Brown Thrasher at Cherry Creek State Park. We saw the thrasher fly away and vanish and then Joe gave me slack for not getting him better looks!   Please consider a tax-deductible donation or pledge per species (pledges do not need to be paid until the 2021 green year ends). The pledges and donations are motivating me to get out and get birds. I'm truly humbled. Thank you. This is going to be such a fun year! Click the link (scroll to the bottom) to pledge or donate!  https://cobirds.org/CFO/Grants/ January 2021 overview (and then the birds!). I thought I'd start off with a little overview of my general strategy for this ...
2 comments
Read more

Introducing the 2021 Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year

Welcome to the 2021 Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year Blog! The Colorado birding community lost one of its pillars when Joe Roller passed away in November 2020. Joe was a fountain of birding lore and loved people as much as birds. Many considered him a beloved friend.  To honor Joe's legacy, I've partnered with Colorado Field Ornithologists (CFO) and created the Joe Roller Memorial Grant to support bird research in Colorado.  The grant will be initially funded by pledges raised through my 2021 Green Big Year, a green (carbon-free) birding initiative. I will be walking or riding my bike from my house in Littleton, Colorado to see as many species as possible in 2021. My 2020 green list is currently 244 species, but I am aiming for at least 250 bird species in 2021!  I'll update this blog with adventures, birds, and photos throughout the year. We are taking per-species pledges and flat tax-deductible donations towards the Grant online at  https://Cobirds.org/CFO/Grants...
Post a Comment
Read more

A sparrow, a sapsucker, and a shrike, oh my!

I've been able to take advantage of dry roads and nice weather lately. I had a couple very successful adventures in the last week and picked up some green avian targets for the year. January 20, 2021 A Harris's Sparrow was frequenting a private residence in Littleton (JeffCo) and despite arriving in the early afternoon, to find no birds anywhere, a flock of White-crowned Sparrows showed up a few minutes later and the Harris's popped up! Talk about luck! I also had taken my camera (a first for a bike ride) and lucked out with a couple decent photos for the blog! A sharp looking Harris's Sparrow! Harris's Sparrow (Green year bird #75) With the grand luck on the Harris's Sparrow, I decided to swing by the ball fields at Kipling and 285 (still in Litteton) to see if there were any Snow Geese around. Not a goose to be found, so I kept going north to Bear Creek Greenbelt to look for either of Winter Wrens that had recently been found between S Estes St and S. Kipling ...
2 comments
Read more