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BIRD DITCH
Structure dossier · WDID 5800541 · 1 · BEAR RIVER · DWR record
Where this page's figures come from
Generated 2026-08-27 21:59 by Hydrohistorian. Sources: DWR HydroBase snapshot HydroBase_CO_20260707 (history) + CDSS REST (current), USGS NWIS cross-checks. Engine v0.5.0 (a1c9146) — every figure regenerates from this named code version and data image.
Where it sits
Location as DWR records it. Faint dots are the neighbouring water; click any to open it.
Which of its rights are out of priority?
Not computable for this structure: this structure is not on the modelled flow network, so no reference gage can honestly stand in for it.
Where it sits in line
Priority 1883-06-28 — 7th most senior of the 3097 structures with decreed rights in this water districtDWR's administrative subdivision of a river basin; the unit calls are usually stated in..
Under prior appropriationColorado's rule for sharing water: first in time, first in right. Age decides, not proximity or need., everything ahead of it in this line is satisfied in full before it receives any water. Immediately ahead: WATSON CREEK DITCH (1883-06-14). Immediately behind: NICKELL DITCH (1883-06-28).
Decreed rights (3)
| Admin noDWR's numeric encoding of a water right's seniority. Smaller is more senior; the integer part counts days from 1849-12-31 to the date that ranks the right. | AppropriatedWhen water was first put to beneficial use. It sets seniority unless a prior adjudication date is later. | AdjudicatedWhen the water court confirmed the right. A use decreed in 1975 was not a decreed use in 1955, however old the appropriation is. | AbsoluteA right actually put to use, as opposed to conditional -- a placeholder for a use not yet made. | ConditionalA right reserving a place in line for a use not yet made; it must be diligently pursued or it lapses. | Units | UsesWhat the court said this water may be used for -- irrigation, municipal supply, augmentation and so on. | Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12232.0 | 1883-06-28 | 1892-09-22 | 6.6 | 0.0 | C | IRRMUNDOM | 4 |
| 19250.17684 | 1898-06-01 | 1902-09-16 | 3.33 | 0.0 | C | IRRDOM | 142 |
| 33782.23892 | 1915-06-01 | 1946-09-14 | 1.62 | 0.0 | C | IRR | 213A |
Legal record & documents
6 decreed actions on record across
5 court cases:
CA2475, 09/16/1902, CA2332, 79CW0074, 09/22/1892.
Every case, dated
| Case | Actions | Latest adjudication | Types |
|---|---|---|---|
CA2475 | 1 | 1946-09-14 | S |
09/16/1902 | 1 | 1902-09-16 | S |
CA2332 | 1 | 1892-09-22 | O |
79CW0074 | 2 | 1892-09-22 | O |
09/22/1892 | 1 | 1892-09-22 | O |
DWR's own records for this structure: net amounts · transactions & adjudication history · scanned decrees (search a case number there for the imaged document). On this site: the district's full legal picture →
Recorded use (last 15 years on record)
In a median year this structure has a recorded diversion of 1,352 AF. Its most recent year on record, 2025, came in at 1,594 AF — 118% of that, and 10th lowest of the 15 years with a recorded volume.
| Year | Diverted (AFA volume: one acre covered a foot deep, about 326,000 gallons -- roughly a suburban household's outdoor use for a year.) | Compared with its own record | Days recorded | Peak (cfs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 1,061 | 3rd lowest of 15 · 78% of median | 72 | 10.0 |
| 2012 | 1,627 | 11th lowest of 15 · 120% of median | 142 | 10.0 |
| 2013 | 1,125 | 4th lowest of 15 · 83% of median | 82 | 11.4 |
| 2014 | 1,055 | 2nd lowest of 15 · 78% of median | 85 | 11.3 |
| 2015 | 1,019 | 1st lowest of 15 · 75% of median | 79 | 9.5 |
| 2016 | 1,556 | 9th lowest of 15 · 115% of median | 129 | 11.3 |
| 2017 | 1,267 | 5th lowest of 15 · 94% of median | 74 | 12.6 |
| 2018 | 1,339 | 7th lowest of 15 · 99% of median | 130 | 10.0 |
| 2019 | 1,311 | 6th lowest of 15 · 97% of median | 110 | 11.6 |
| 2020 | 1,702 | 12th lowest of 15 · 126% of median | 141 | 11.4 |
| 2021 | 1,814 | 14th lowest of 15 · 134% of median | 156 | 9.8 |
| 2022 | 1,352 | 8th lowest of 15 · 100% of median | 128 | 11.4 |
| 2023 | 1,786 | 13th lowest of 15 · 132% of median | 155 | 11.4 |
| 2024 | 1,996 | 15th lowest of 15 · 148% of median | 181 | 11.4 |
| 2025 | 1,594 | 10th lowest of 15 · 118% of median | 172 | 9.8 |
Trends for this structure
Recorded use is rising over its last 15 recorded years (+47 AF/yr, Mann-Kendall p=0.010).
How good is our record of it?
Grade B (8/10 points) — the components below are the finding; the letter alone is not.
The rubric, component by component
| Check | State | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| identity | complete | name, type, and water source all on file |
| decreed rights | on file | 3 right(s), seniority decoded |
| diversion record | present | 10264 measured days; currency unknown (no data-coverage date to compare against) |
| record continuity | patchy | 52% of the irrigation seasons in 1933-2025 carry measured days |
| published-record stability | stable | no upstream revisions recorded against this structure |
Advisory reading aid on public data — not an administrative or legal conclusion, not a title opinion, and not a substitute for DWR administration or an engineer's analysis. Methodology review status is disclosed at hydrohistorian's basin pages.