December 20, 2025: Bear Creek Greenbelt (Christmas Bird Count)
This past Saturday the 20th, I joined my fourth Christmas Bird Count (CBC) for the Lower Bear Creak area, which includes my patch in the Bear Creek Greenbelt. The CBC has a lengthy history which is cool to continue. CBC areas tend to attract the same people every year too, so it's another opportunity to catch up with members of the community who I may not see the rest of the year.
We do the greenbelt in the morning, and given that we're responsible for a few miles of it from just west of Kipling to Sheridan, our CBC leader divides us up into three groups. I have never birded with the group that takes the western-most portion of the area, and so I volunteered for it this year, as one of my good birding acquaintances who also considers the greenbelt her patch informally leads that sector each year. And she knows where all the good birds are.
Along with another companion who has a magic eye for owls and another regular on this CBC, we made our way to start from Old Kipling and head west of Kipling Parkway for a bit. A Winter Wren has been present in this part of the greenbelt this season, and we got the best looks (and listens) of one I've ever had in my birding life. Our owler also got us on three Great Horned Owls, all of which I certainly would have walked right past. It's always amazing to me how such a large bird can be so cryptic.
We also listed a number of regular winter and all-season residents, including Mallards, White-crowned Sparrows, many White-breasted Nuthatches, Song Sparrows, and a fan-favorite American Dipper. All of which I enjoy watching. But about mid-morning our de facto leader got a text from a neighbor alerting us to the presence of both a bobcat and a Wild Turkey in the vicinity. We made a beeline to where these two were alleged to be, and we did not miss either of them.
The bobcat was much better camouflaged and a whole lot less wary than I anticipated though. It was laying right in the middle of a denuded field, and from a distance I dismissed it as a clump of dead grass or perhaps a defunct prairie dog mound. It wasn't until I got my binoculars on it that I knew what we were looking at. In the hopes of getting closer for photos, we ended up spooking it and had to shoot through the chain-link fence from a greater distance than is ideal for my little camera, but after some cleaning up I'm okay with the shot I got.
Once the bobcat disappeared underneath the fence into the brambly snarl of wild plums on the other side, our attention was drawn up into the cottonwood above, where the Wild Turkey had sought safety. We all speculated on how and why the turkey had come to the neighborhood alone about a month prior. It certainly surprised and delighted all of us, and was a new hotspot bird for the entire group.
