Atlasing in Summit and Grand counties this week, Urling and I
learned to recognize begging cowbird young. For better or for worse. Worse:
wear and tear on the surrogate parents. Better: two atlas confirmations at once
(FF for parent, FL for cowbird).
First we found one with a junco parent.
Then we found two fledglings, each with separate Ruby-crowned
Kinglet parents. How those tiny little things can feed a hulking cowbird
mystifies us. They looked rather harried. And - we wonder - what does it do to
the parents' constitutions to contend with such a youngster?
And today, at home in Franktown, I heard a begging cowbird followed
by a Spotted Towhee.
Atlasing in the mountains this week produced lots of confirmations.
Numerous fledglings, many adults feeding young, and one Collared-Dove nest with
two young - at the Breckenridge Golf Course. In one block we hadn't visited
before, we confirmed almost half the species we found (6 out of 15).
If you can visit your mountain Atlas block(s) this weekend - try
it. You may find lots of confirmations and succeed in completing your block.
Hugh Kingery
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