Jan. 10, 1-3 p.m.: Winter Raptors on the Prairie, homeschool program for ages 6 – 10 at RMBO’s Environmental Learning Center, 14500 Lark Bunting Ln., Brighton, Colo. What do birds of prey eat and where do they find shelter in the winter? And lots more about raptors. Contact Cassy to register by Jan. 8: cassy.bohnet@rmbo.org or 303-659-4348 ext. 15.
Jan. 19, 2012, 6 p.m., From Basic to Advanced Birding with RMBO and Wild Birds Unlimited at 230 Cherry, Fort Collins, Colo. (east entrance). Whether you can tell a nuthatch from a chickadee OR NOT… Come on down! This fun presentation focuses on bird ID skills using local birds as examples. RMBO Outreach Biologist Jeff Birek will help both beginner and intermediate birders advance their skills and knowledge. Call Robert Gartrell at Wild Birds Unlimited to register: 970-225-2557. Free
Upcoming events
Barr Lake Christmas Bird Count
Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory will sponsor the Barr Lake Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on January 2, one of 48 CBC circles being surveyed in Colorado during the holiday season. The count is open to birders of all skill levels. Last year in the Barr Lake circle, 21 volunteers counted 27,446 birds of 63 species.
The world’s longest-running citizen-science survey, the CBC is organized by the National Audubon Society and was started in 1900 by Frank Chapman, founder of Bird-Lore (which evolved into Audubon magazine). Tens of thousands of volunteers throughout North America will brave winter weather to add to more than a century of data. Scientists rely on the remarkable trend data of the CBC to better understand how birds are faring in North America and beyond.
Volunteers for the Barr Lake count will meet at 7 a.m. at RMBO’s Old Stone House headquarters at 14500 Lark Bunting Lane, south off of Bromley Lane just east of Brighton. Hot beverages and donuts will be available as participants organize into seven groups to cover the count area. Volunteers should bring snacks, lunch, water, and their birding optics and field guides. After meeting back at the Stone House for lunch and a progress check, participants will fan out again to complete the count. Register here or contact compiler Chuck Hundertmark at chundertmark8(at)gmail.com or 303-604-0531.
All CBC counts are conducted from December 14 through January 5 each season, with each individual count occurring on a single calendar day. New participants join an established group that includes at least one experienced birdwatcher. Volunteers follow specified routes through a designated 15-mile (24-km) diameter circle, or they can arrange in advance to count the birds at home feeders inside the circle and submit the results to a designated compiler.
With 2,215 counts involving 62,624 people tallying more than 60 million birds, last year’s CBC shattered records. Counts took place in all U.S. states and Canadian provinces, plus 107 count circles in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands.
Photo and story submitted by Chuck Hundertmark. Photo: This Winter Wren was one of 27,446 birds surveyed in 2010’s Barr Lake CBC.
Birding Hot Spots of Central New Mexico: Book Review
by Chuck Hundertmark
Birders heading for Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge will find Birding Hot Spots of Central New Mexico a handy guide, covering birding areas from just north of Albuquerque south to the refuge, one of the best-known in the country. Authors Judy Liddell and Barbara Hussey offer considerable and well-organized detail, making it easy to plan birding forays in the region. Published by Texas A & M University Press, the guide begins by introducing the area’s geography, life zones and habitats ranging from Chihuahuan desert scrubland to the rocky, spruce-fir-capped crest of the Sandia Mountains.
Chapters 3-8 are organized by sub-regions. Using the junction of I-25 and I-40 as a starting point, the authors describe birding hot spots along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque and Corrales, the Sandia Foothills, the east side of the Sandia Mountains, the Manzanita and Manzano Mountains, Petroglyph National Monument, and the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque.
Habitat descriptions, access points and trails are included for each hot spot, along with maps for nine of them and notes on which are eBird hot spots. Target species are listed with annotations about where and when they are likely to be found. Birders seeking to add southwestern species to their year or life lists will find this particularly useful, heading to the Elena Gallegos Picnic Area for Juniper Titmouse or the Bosque del Apache Visitor Center for Verdins. Other birds likely to be seen are listed with less detail. The Annotated Checklist at the end lists 241 species found regularly in this diverse area and is also useful for birders targeting particular species. Want to catch Ross’s Goose at Bosque del Apache? Don’t arrive before November, and if you go too late in February, your chances will be slimmer.
Birders will find help with planning trips, including tips on weather, altitude, safety, pests and public transportation. For each hot spot, the authors give directions and information on parking, facilities, special considerations and hazards, and the nearest food and gas. The final chapter is devoted to the American Birding Association’s Code of Birding Ethics.
The book’s organization inevitably leads to some redundancy. Harvester ants are numerous in New Mexico, so they get frequent mention as do rattlesnakes. While herp lovers would want to see rattlesnakes listed as target species, the authors appropriately list them with special considerations and hazards.
Although I spent 30 years birding the area covered by this guide, I plan to take it on my next trip to Bosque del Apache.
Chuck Hundertmark serves on RMBO’s board of directors. Before moving to Colorado in 1997, he spent 30 years in New Mexico where he served as president of the New Mexico Ornithological Society and Central New Mexico Audubon Society and was the founder of Rio Grande Bird Research Inc., a nonprofit conducting banding programs.November 2011 Primary Source newsletter now available!
Read about:
Volunteer opportunities;
The Environmental Learning Center Springs to Life;
Bird Feats — making strides for conservation;
Staff Migrations; and more!
Scientists from across West gather to advance bird monitoring
Forty people from as far away as Montana and Texas were in our Fort Collins office for three days last week to strategize on how to best 
accomplish seamless bird monitoring across the western landscape.
These representatives of 15 federal, state and private partners and RMBO’s science staff have conducted the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions program for the past three years. Collectively, we identify trends and population patterns more quickly by all working under the same monitoring framework. The results must be scalable so field biologists with the BLM or the Forest Service get data that help guide management of their forest or grassland units while also contributing to the bigger picture across the West’s grasslands, arid lands, forests and streams at state and regional levels.
Among the topics participants discussed were:
• best practices for engaging and working with private landowners to gain access for monitoring surveys;
• survey protocols;
• applying our existing data to guide management of private and public lands;
• applying new statistical theory and techniques for improved monitoring.
Results from the meeting will guide the 2012 field season, with RMBO coordinating the effort – from fieldwork to data analysis. In 2011, when an area the size of Egypt— more than 1,000,000 square kilometers of habitat – was surveyed, RMBO conducted 70 percent of the surveys and 100 percent of the data analysis.
Together Green award will help RMBO teach importance of grasslands
Congratulations to RMBO Education Director Kacie Ehrenberger who has received a national conservation fellowship that will help RMBO convey the importance of grasslands for wildlife and agriculture to thousands of students and teachers.
She is one of 40 individuals nationwide selected as a 2011 TogetherGreen Fellow for innovative environmental leadership. Through a conservation alliance between Audubon and Toyota, each fellow receives $10,000 toward a project to engage local communities in conserving land, water and energy and contributing to environmental health.
Kacie will use her fellowship to develop an education module to highlight grasslands, their importance for agriculture and wildlife, and challenges facing them. She will pilot the module, designed for 4th-8th grades, at Hemphill Middle School in Strasburg, Colo., a small rural school with an interest in tying students’ outdoor experiences to their curriculum.
Local landowners and resource managers will be invited to interact with students and teachers on field trips that showcase examples of integrating the needs of agricultural producers and bird populations.
Native plants get new digs at Environmental Learning Center
About 900 native, perennial plants, shrubs and trees found a home on Oct. 10 at the Environmental Learning Center (ELC) at RMBO’s Old Stone House at Barr Lake in Brighton, Colo.
Fifty volunteers “literally transformed the ecosystem around the Old Stone House in a matter of hours,” said an email from Wildlands Restoration Volunteers, which organized the project. WRV was joined for the day of digging, watering and mulching by volunteers from the Butterfly Pavilion, Barr Lake State Park, Greater Brighton Neighborhood Volunteers and Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory.
The new habitat demonstration gardens at the ELC will help homeowners learn how native plants can attract birds to their yards, reduce watering and benefit the environment. New shrubs and trees were planted to replace recently removed Black Locusts, invasive and non-native trees that crowd out native plants and reduce plant diversity. RMBO will continue removin
g Black Locusts over many years as native plantings grow in to transform the grove into an oasis for birds.
(Photos by Cassy Bohnet, RMBO Colo. Education Coodinator)
Big Birder Reviews “The Big Year”
Invited by RMBO to an advance screening of “The Big Year,” some members of the field-glass fraternity and the telescope sorority settled in at the Denver Film Center Monday evening, munched popcorn and tried not to fret about how we birders would be skewered in this latest gem to grace the silver screen.
I loved it. I laughed, I winced, I almost cried and I was charmed by the goofy portrayal of three wild and crazy birders as they twitched, chased and scored. Go see it! Everyone who is aware of your avian obsession will be asking you about the new bird flick. It opens in theaters this Friday. The movie is based on the book by Denver’s own Mark Obmascik who was at the screening and introduced the film.
See “The Big Year” with your spouse, but brace yourself for a few nudges in the ribs, as your birding behavior is displayed in Technicolor: “That’s you, dear. They got that right!” One review I read says the characters’ “quests are an allegory to the challenges faced in their lives.” So respond to your spouse with, “Honey, when I go birding it’s an allegory.” (Try that, and let me know if it flies).
And, yes, Steve Martin reprises the dance of “A Wild and Crazy Guy.” Jack Black reprises sweating, and Owen Wilson wears duds like no birder I know. The movie is labeled PG “for language and some sensuality.” Sensuality? Maybe I blinked? Maybe the label refers to that sensual scene with the Bald Eagles?
I think I spotted only a few errors: Did I see a birder in the field with a camera, but NO binoculars? Did I see THAT hawk in THAT weather? Does Attu come with bird name labels on every hillside and meadow? Could you see THAT owl in THAT national forest? (I looked it up – you could). But the biggest error is the repeated conceit that “Whoever sets the Big Year record is The World’s Best Birder!”
I don’t want to spoil the ending, but can say this much – every year ends on New Year’s Eve.
Movie reviews usually conclude with a rating – my personal rating of The Big Year is four out of five buckets of stinky fish-head chum. The ticket? Maybe eight bucks. The Milk Duds? About two bucks. Memories of The Big Year? Priceless!
By Joe Roller, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Board and Field-Glass Fraternity Member
RMBO biologist spends birthday on the prOWL
By Jason Beason, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Special Monitoring Projects Coordinator
I worked long hours on my birthday this year, but I’m not complaining as I was getting paid to band owls. Not just any owls but two small species that breed in the forests of western Colorado – Northern Saw-whet and Flammulated Owls. These tiny owls are 
amazing to see in the hand. I describe them simply as “darn cute.” Always intrigued by Flammulated Owls, I even named my son Otus, which is the genus for the species.
The U.S. Forest Service contacted me in May to schedule a time when the nestlings would be large enough to pull out of the nest boxes and place bands on their legs. We made our first attempt on July 22 –- the aforementioned birthday –– and successfully banded a boxful of three nestling Northern Saw-whet Owls and captured an adult female Flammulated Owl. The Flammulated Owl nestlings in their nest box were too small that day, but we returned a week later and banded them.
This procedure helps the USFS monitor nest productivity, estimate population levels and determine if the boxes can provide nest sites for these species. This year biologists checked approximately 150 boxes on the Uncompahgre National Forest and only two were used, which means additional study will be required. Nest boxes make it easier to conduct research on these species, which otherwise use small tree cavities for their nests.
Photo: Diego Lareau (left) and Otus Beason see their first Flammulated Owl, Uncompahgre National Forest, July 22, 2011. By Jason Beason
“Walk on the Wild Side” benefits education
Walk on the Wild Side: Take Steps for a Healthy Community, Rocky
Mountain Bird Observatory’s first-ever walkathon, drew nearly 70 participants on Oct 1 to enjoy a beautiful fall day at Barr Lake while raising more than $4,000 for RMBO’s environmental education programs. Additional contributions are still welcome and can be sent to RMBO, P.O. Box 1232 Lark Bunting Lane, Brighton, CO 80601, or call 303-659-4348 ext. 16 for information.
In 2010 RMBO’s education staff and volunteers engaged nearly 25,000 citizens in nature and conservation via workshops, school programs, summer camps and public events. RMBO’s Environmental Learning Center at Barr Lake State Park is a new community resource to bring people and
nature together for the benefit of both.
