The Fort Collins Audubon Field Trip (about 15 participants) today started at the Running Deer/Cottonwood Hollow Natural Areas east of the Poudre River and south of Prospect, continued at the Sharp Point Drive "Feedlot Pond" just west of the river south of Prospect, and ended at Grandview Cemetery at the west terminus of Mountain Avenue. Our highlights were:
Running Deer/Cottonwood Hollow NAs: Northern Shrike (adult) Bald Eagle (1a, 1 subadult) - The adult eagle was spotted chasing a Canada Goose. Regardless of which bird one was rooting for, the chase seemed to go on forever (probably at least 5 minutes), in a big ark from s to n, then w to e, then n to se. When the pair got closer to us, we could see the goose was dangling one leg. Finally the adult broke off the chase, and from the west, as if being handed a baton, a subadult eagle appeared and resumed the chase. This went on for about 30 seconds until the goose went into a steep downward dive and disappeared at ground level behind some trees. At first we thought the goose went into a pond and the eagle would make the kill, but then the eagle started coursing back and forth over the point of goose disappearance. I think the goose's last escape tactic might have been a headlong dash into cattails and the eagle lost sight of it. At any rate, assuming the goose didn't die of a broken beak, it appears to have lived to tell the tale. Red-tailed Hawk (both dark and light morphs) Common Raven (2) flying w to e In Running Deer we saw some hollow cottonwoods and at Cottonwood Hollow we saw some running (white-tailed) deer. Sharp Point Drive "Feedlot: A nice assortment of 12 waterfowl species, including a pair of Wood Ducks, a lone male Ring-neck Duck, and lots of Northern Pintails. Grandview Cemetery: No White-winged Crossbills while the group was there from 11am to 12:30pm. Sue Riffe, Seth Gallager and I walked around for another 2.5 hours and saw no crossbills. At 3, being rather mulish, I went back over to Section 7 and, of course, the male called a little bit and fed on spruce cones for 5-10 minutes at the extreme sw corner of the section. I moved around to get a better light situation and never saw it again. At 3:30 I met Denise and Julia from out of town, and we soon saw the female in Section 2 (just w of 7). She was vocal and T-ed up in a spruce, fed for a bit on spruce seeds, then bombed off to the west out of the cemetery. My suggestions as for best times to have a shot at seeing these very fickle birds would be 8:30-10:00am and 3-4pm, concentrating in Sections 7 and 2. The usual assortment of chickadees, siskins, creepers, red-breasted nuthatches were very active in the spruce and other trees. Sue Riffe spotted a Sharp-shinned Hawk and I had a White-breasted Nuthatch near the entrance at 4pm. All in all a great day that started cold and somewhat warmed up, and that had enough good birds and behaviors to make it interesting. I thank all the participants for making it fun. Dave Leatherman Fort Collins
