Another fine, 30+ species day at Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins (8:15-10:45am). The weather was crisp, calm, and clear this morning, with lots of dew. The leaves for the most part are still on the trees and green.
After 9 am or so, insects of many types were evident. Several individuals of a particularly interesting set of species (Bald-faced Hornets, a native yellowjacket (Vespula sp.), European paper wasps, one of our native Polistes paper wasps, Multicolored Asian Ladybird Beetles, various flies, a species of brown lacewing, etc.) were gleaning the sugary ooze that accumulates on the surface of Rough Bullet Galls (made by a species of cynipid wasp) on Bur Oak This material, which emanates from within the galls, is not really honeydew in the sense of "normal" honeydew (i.e., aphid and scale excrement) but I don't know what else to call it. I didn't really see any birds associating with this set of insects since their discovery was late in the visit, but I certainly intend to pay attention to it next time. As for bird highlights: *Mountain Chickadee (5+) the presumed winter shift which arrived about a week ago was still very evident *Townsend's Warbler (at least 2) still lingering, mostly working on aphids and European elm scales, maybe attendant yellowjackets, in American Elm and on aphids in American Linden *Red-breasted Nuthatch (at least 15) still busy caching spruce seeds *Western Tanager (1) lingering *Yellow-rumped Warbler (12 or so) mostly in American Elms (mostly foraging down small terminal branches, flushing some type of insect (yellowjackets?) and then dive-bombing the falling prey) *Red-naped Sapsucker (1 adult female) in American Elm in middle of cemetery *Orange-crowned Warbler (1) in American Elm *Wilson's Warbler (1) in American Linden, mostly *Ruby-crowned Kinglet (3) seemed very yellowish (juveniles?) *Dark-eyed Junco (few) *Barn Swallow (few) lingering, non-directional flying around (for no good reason, suspect they were part of the local colony, not migrants) *CASSIN'S KINGBIRD (1) #176 for my cemetery list (perched in top of dead tree in a field 100 yards north of northern cemetery boundary (LaPorte Ave.)) *House Wren (1) at the entry bridge in Virginia Creeper tangle Other things: *Red Fox *Fox Squirrels (few still nibbling hackberry nipplegall psyllid galls, indicating the adult psyllid hatch is yet to come - looks like passerine migration will mostly be over when it happens, so maybe that means there will be more to overwinter and provide food for nuthatches, creepers (and golden-crowned kinglets, if they ever reappear at the cemetery)) *Darner dragonflies (just a few) *Small dark brown caddisfly sp. doing the aerial jitterbug over the canal *Sulphur butterflies (few) *Looked for suspected Ceraunus Blue (butterfly) from a week ago but had no success Dave Leatherman Fort Collins --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
