About an hour ago I saw and photographed an adult GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER along the west side of the Poudre River in Fort Collins (Larimer) about 2/3's of a mile north of Prospect. If you take the bike trail north from the office complex (I think it is called "Riverbend" something and includes Neenan Construction, etc) that is on the north side of Prospect just west of the river, go north past the dip in the trail that marks the outlet stream for Confluence Pond about 100 yards and then cut east toward the river (roughly due east of the sign for Cattail Chorus NA). Those of you who know the area dubbed "The Good Spot", I first saw the Golden-winged Warbler just north of the dip in the foot path that goes just along the west side of the giant willow. The bird was feeding in a mixed flock moving very slowly southward that included about 6 Black-capped Chickadees, 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 1 Orange-crowned Warbler, 1 Brown Creeper and 1 Downy Woodpecker. It was always in cottonwoods working either dead leaf clusters or old fall webworm tents, and I never saw it come lower than 15 feet. It was predominately 20-30 feet up and, given its general secrecy, could easily be mistaken for a chickadee. I saw it capture and eat one large peach-colored spider, probably the Cat-faced Spider.
Other birds seen along the river north of Prospect included: Plumbeous Vireo (eating a rough stinkbug (Brachymena sp.), like just about every "Solitary" Vireo I see does) White-crowned Sparrows (at least 8, all apparently Gambeli in rabbitbrush mostly at Cattail Chorus Double-crested Cormorant (1 juvenile) in Confluence Pond Black-crowned Night-Heron (immature) at the trail crossing of the outlet from Confluence Pond Barn Swallow (still a few) For what it's worth, earlier in the day, the clouds were going two different directions. 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
