San Luis Valley National Wildlife
Refuge Complex Friends of the SLV NWRC
9383 El Rancho Lane PO Box 857
Alamosa CO 81101 Monte Vista CO 81101
Phone: 719-589-4021 Phone: 719-589-0988
Fax: 719-587-0595
December 31, 2005
Results of 48th Monte Vista NWR Christmas Bird Count
The Monte Vista National Wildlife
Refuge once again held their annual Christmas Bird Count on December 17,
2005 in the San Luis Valley of south central Colorado. Twelve people,
and Bopp the black lab, spent a total of 22 party hours and covered over
225 miles on the count. Weather conditions during the day were favorable
with partly cloudy skies and little to no wind. Temperatures ranged from
a brisk -6o F to a balmy 30o F. Coverage of the count circle was thorough
and all habitat types were surveyed.
This year's numbers were high, most likely due to the areas of open watery.
Homelake was not frozen this year. A total of 65 species were documented
and 6,292 individuals. This is the first year diversity numbers have gone
up in three years, and we beat the record high of 63 species, set in 2001.
A new species for the count is the cackling goose. We saw many species
of ducks we did not expect, thanks again to Homelake, and red crossbills
are a count first. (I think)
This year we sent our information to the National Audubon to be included in the National Christmas Bird Count. This is the second time since 1994 we have done this. The website is easy to access and you can see how we have done in years past as far as number go. I'd like to continue to participate in the NCBC, so we'll have to have our Christmas count between Dec 14-Jan5, 2006-7.
Thank you to all of you who helped with this year's count, see you next year on December 16, 2006! And I encourage all you backyard feeder watchers to participate. Please!
The following is a summary list of species and individual numbers of each that were documented during the 2005 event:
