Pueblo Reservoir Christmas Bird Count

Today was the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) at the Pueblo Reservoir. This CBC had the high number of species several times in the past including last year's all-time state record of 129 species. This is due to the diversity of habitats withing the count circle including a major reservoir, pinyon-juniper habitat, some grassland, urban and riparian.

I participated for part of the day surveying in the Pueblo West area. Though this is a mostly residential area, there are places where it is possible to walk into a conservation area and State Wildlife area with a small wetland. This photo shows part of the reservoir taken from a pinyon-juniper hillside and with the Wet Mountains providing a great background.

Due to the good amount of pinyon-juniper, we saw 13 Townsend's Solitaire. There were lots of Dark-eyed Juncos, some White-crowned Sparrows (fewer than I expected), some Song Sparrows and a Lincoln's Sparrow. The grassland area has a lot of cactus, both tree cholla and prickly-pear, which produced 2 Curve-billed Thrashers with several Canyon Towhees. Also in this grassland area were more than 45 Scaled Quail. We saw 4 adult Red-tailed Hawks and only 1 American Kestral.

More than 25 participants surveyed birds for this CBC today with a preliminary total count of 124 species.

SeEtta