
Not many birds on the high plains outside town for the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Christmas Bird Count when it is barely 10 degrees. Photo by Barb Gorges.
Published in the Wyoming Tribune Eagle Jan. 14, 2018, “Two Christmas Bird Counts–80 miles apart–compared,
Also published at Wyoming Network News.
By Barb Gorges
I took part in two different Christmas Bird Counts last month.
The Guernsey-Fort Laramie 7.5-mile diameter count circle is centered where U.S. Hwy. 26 crosses the line between Goshen and Platte counties, halfway between the towns. Guernsey’s population is 1,100, Fort Laramie’s is 230, while the Cheyenne count is centered on the Capitol amidst 60,000 people.
All of the species in the combined list below have been seen on previous CBCs in Cheyenne, except for the canyon wren.
Guernsey is 80 miles north of Cheyenne, but 1600 feet lower. Cheyenne’s few small reservoirs were nearly entirely frozen this year. However, within the other count circle are Guernsey Reservoir, on the North Platte, and part of Grayrocks Reservoir on the Laramie River There was more open water on the day of that count, Dec. 17, so you’ll see more ducks listed compared to Cheyenne’s, held Dec. 30.
The cliffs along the North Platte have juniper trees with berries, attracting lots of robins and solitaires. Cheyenne, on the other hand, has lots of residential vegetation and more bird feeders.
There were 16 people on the Cheyenne count, about 10 on the other. We take the same routes every year and statistical analysis of time and distance travelled smooths things out for scientists using our data.
Jane Dorn, the compiler for the Guernsey-Fort Laramie count, includes certain subspecies in her reports when possible. Of her 14 northern flickers, one was yellow-shafted (yellow wing-linings), like the flickers in eastern North America.
Dorn also sorts out dark-eyed juncos. Of the 33 on her count, eight were slate-colored (the junco of eastern North America), one was white-winged (range centered on the Black Hills) and three were Oregon. The other 21 were either difficult to see or hybrids—the reason there are no longer multiple species of juncos with dark eyes.
Dorn had four adult and two immature bald eagles. Those of us coming up from Cheyenne missed a chance for seeing them when we skipped Greyrocks Reservoir while delaying our trip two hours for black ice on I-25 to melt.
The weather for the Cheyenne count put a damper on the number of songbirds out in the morning when we have the most people participating. Dec. 30 was when everything was thickly covered in fluffy ice crystals. Serious birders shrugged off the 7-degree temperature and were rewarded with beauty. By lunch time, I was shrugging off layers to keep cool when the day’s high reached 56 degrees.
Cheyenne count compiler Greg Johnson noted raptors were well represented this year, with 10 species observed, the rough-legged hawk the most abundant with 13 seen, and the two merlins the most unusual.
Johnson said, “Three lingering red-winged blackbirds were visiting a feeder at the Wyoming Hereford Ranch. Otherwise, no unexpected or rare species were observed.”
Guernsey – Fort Laramie (Dec. 17, 2017) and Cheyenne (Dec. 30, 2017) Christmas Bird Count Comparison
Bold – species seen both counts
Regular – species seen Cheyenne only
Italic – species seen Guernsey – Fort Laramie only
G-FL Chey.
6 — Western Grebe
2877 1259 Canada Goose
2 — Cackling Goose
67 76 Mallard
2 1 Common Goldeneye
45 — Green-winged Teal
1 — Bufflehead
285 — Common Merganser
cw — Killdeer
6 1 Bald Eagle
cw 5 Northern Harrier
3 6 Red-tailed Hawk
— 1 Ferruginous Hawk
— 13 Rough-legged Hawk
1 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
— 1 Cooper’s Hawk
1 — Golden Eagle, Adult
6 3 American Kestrel
— 2 Merlin
1 1 Prairie Falcon
11 — Wild Turkey
7 — Ring-billed Gull
333 463 Rock Pigeon
159 83 Eurasian Collared-Dove
— 1 Great Horned Owl
1 — Eastern Screech Owl
4 1 Belted Kingfisher
7 2 Downy Woodpecker
1 — Hairy Woodpecker
14 5 Northern Flicker
2 — Northern Shrike
1 4 Blue Jay
3 46 Black-billed Magpie
11 168 American Crow
2 32 Common Raven
12 37 Horned Lark
31 — Black-capped Chickadee
3 3 Mountain Chickadee
2 1 White-breasted Nuthatch
7 7 Red-breasted Nuthatch
— 1 Pygmy Nuthatch
cw — Brown Creeper
1 — Canyon Wren
58 6 Townsend’s Solitaire
144 5 American Robin
202 353 European Starling
— 35 Unidentified waxwing
7 — Cedar Waxwing
8 — American Tree Sparrow
3 — Song Sparrow
33 30 Dark-eyed Junco
— 7 Unidentified blackbird
— 3 Red-winged Blackbird
27 40 House Finch
16 — Pine Siskin
102 10 American Goldfinch
cw 139 House Sparrow

Cottonwood trees full of birds held our attention along a slough off the North Platte River on the Guernsey – Ft. Laramie, Wyoming, Christmas Bird Count. Photo by Barb Gorges.