Interesting cloud mixture (both white and dark gray moisture-laden cumulus), plenty of blue sky, cold, snow aftermath on the ground that obviously came in with considerable wind yesterday, strong winds aloft out of the NW, nice set of birds and behaviors, nothing rare.
In the chronological order found: Pine Siskin - perhaps the dominate bird in terms of numbers and sound, lots of courtship activity European Starling - good (bad?) numbers in all the silver maples and American elms with cavities American Robin - several, fair amount of half-hearted singing, few actively consuming juniper berries American Crow - one squadron going over, decided to give the Great Horned Owls a break today Northern Flicker - several, lots of drumming, courtship calling, hole activity House Finches - several, some courtship singing and activity Mourning Dove - major influx, lots of calling, zooming around Black-capped Chickadee - several, one pair actively removing wood chips from cavity in American elm Dark-eyed Junco - several, lot of singing from within spruce crowns, mostly Slate-colored that I could see White-breasted Nuthatch - two pairs, mostly gleaning European elm scales from American elm branches Brown Creeper - one in honeylocust Eurasian Collared-Dove - 5-6 individuals, presumably nesting underway in CO blue spruce Downy Woodpecker - 1 engaged in courtship drumming Hairy Woodpecker - extracting something (wood wasps or carpenter ants?) from decrepit silver maple Red-winged Blackbird - 3 flying over Rock Pigeon - 4 flying over Townsend's Solitaire - 1 in the top of a CO blue spruce, junipers nearby Great Horned Owl - mother sitting proudly in American elm crotch nest, one baby visible for the first time this year House Sparrow - flock fussing in hedge north of the cemetery Red-tailed Hawk - 1 soaring off to the north Common Grackle - 2 flying over Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1 heard from within CO blue spruce Total of 22 species (normal for the cemetery this time of year is about 17) Misses: Ring-billed Gull flyover Canada Goose flyover Mountain Chickadee (there are one or two in the cemetery this winter) Blue Jay (usually heard off to the east) Turkey Vulture? Dave Leatherman Fort Collins --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Join us at the 2009 Convention in Alamosa: http://cfo-link.org/convention/index.php You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
