The crossbill show continues at Grandview Cemetery, Fort Collins. Norm Lewis and I saw the pair of White-winged Crossbills by themselves this morning between 8:15 and 9:30 in the central portion of the cemetery, mostly in Sections E, D, and S. When not feeding, the male sings extensively. When singing, he may be in American elms, the tops of spruce, or anyplace else the mood strikes him. During one special episode today, we watched both birds feeding in spruce side-by-side, each holding its own cone with one foot while hanging on with the other and extracting seeds with their bills and tongues. If the Winter Olympics had a sport called "Two-bird Treetop Tonguing" or "Pairs Figure Feeding", this twosome would be medal contenders. After thawing out over a nice breakfast with Norm, I went back this afternoon. The entire Fort Collins office staff/board of RMBO and I were treated to a flock of around 30 Red Crossbills feeding in spruce just west of the entrance, and then further west (mostly Section E). The pair of white-wings was in with them and holding their own. Interestingly, at one point this flock flew, with half of them leaving the cemetery to the west and the other half just moving to neaby trees to continue feeding. As best I could tell, the white-wings were with the half that left.
About 3pm I saw the dark (taiga race) Merlin (first seen a couple days ago) flying s to n over the east part of the cemetery. Total of 23 species today. 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
