I surveyed Grandview Cemetery, Fort Collins, today between 9:30am and 12:30pm. The pair of White-winged Crossbills came into Section S (central portion of the cemetery) for about 10 minutes at 10am. I first heard the male on high, he circled into the top of a spruce, soon to be joined by the female. She flew to another spruce to the northwest in Section D, with him right behind. They disappeared into the middle of a spruce crown for 5 minutes. She zoomed out to another spruce, he followed right behind, and into the middle of the next tree south they went. Then she zoomed out, he followed, and I lost them heading thru Section J to the west. Like the farmer said upon surprising some neighbor teenage kids in his hayloft, "Hormones is all I can figure".
A group of two yellow and two red Red Crossbills was also in spruce in the south-central part of the cemetery. They sampled several spruce tops before settling for over half an hour a particular tree in Section 8. One of the males sang the entire time, while the others fed on seeds. Cedar Waxwings and American Robins fed side by side, at times no more than 3 feet from me, in a female Rocky Mountain Juniper full of berries wnw of the entrance. The solitaire was not in this same tree today, for a change. The Red-breasted Nuthatches, instead of gleaning seeds from exposed spruce cones out at the ends of branches like they normally do, were creeper wannabes along inner spruce branches within ten feet of where the branches attach to the trunks. I guess if football teams need domes these days, nuthatches have the right to get inside the protection of big spruce crowns on a cold day. Today several Fox Squirrels were conspicuously feeding far out on the branches in deciduous trees. All but one were in either Silver Maple or American Elm. The individualist was eating the buds of Ohio Buckeye, something I don't think I've ever seen. The buds, particularly the flower buds, of this tree are huge in comparison to the other trees present. Their taste is obviously not preferred over the usual fare (elm, cottonwood, silver maple, hackberry, etc.), but maybe for this particular squirrel on a day where survival is priority, calories took precedence over taste. Or maybe this is the one individual squirrel in the crowd that likes anchovies on his pizza. Just as a note, I've talked to several people over the last few weeks who obviously read COBIRDS, and who drive up, rigidly hunting for the section mentioned in yesterday's post, regardless of whether someone is trying to point to the birds or tell them where they have been seen in the last 5 minutes. By now it should be apparent, the birds can be anywhere there are big spruce trees at any hour of daylight. As has been said before, they are predictably unpredictable. IF they nest and IF we figure out where that is, then maybe knowing a particular Section or set of gps coordinates would be helpful. But if you insist, there is a map of the cemetery showing the sections at the entrance just before the troll bridge over the ditch. 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
