I took a group of 12 ladies out this morning, departing from the WBU
in Fort Collins. It never warmed up as I expected, but the wind
wasn't blowing!
We had great looks at a Fox along the edge of the trees.
Black-capped Chickadee's were our most numerous bird - even more than
the European Starling's we saw. Dark-eyed Juncos - Pink-sided
subspecies were high in the cottonwoods chasing each other. We saw
several groups of Canada Geese flyover and were able to see a couple
of Cackling Geese among them.
A Brown Creeper entertained us for awhile as we struggled to get
everyone looks. It was being quite elusive.
American Kestrel's were out and about, we saw about 3.
Red-winged Blackbird -only 1.
Rock Pigeon - a few.
American Crows, two I think.
Northern Flicker - one chilly one.
Eurasian Collared-Dove - several displaying.
Belted Kingfisher - One nice male gave us great looks.
A Common Goldeneye circled around us twice, giving us quite a show
and being typically beautiful.
Black-billed Magpies - three, vocal and chasing a Sharp-shinned Hawk.
A pair of Downy Woodpeckers were working in the trees along the river.
Other interesting things - A Bullock's Oriole nest made nearly
entirely of blue tarp fabric.
Beavers are taking down one foot plus diameter cottonwoods and
stripping all the branches and the top six feet or so of the log left
of its bark. One tree had to be nearly 2 feet wide at the base - not
fallen yet, but nearly chewed through. Then there was the 5 inch tree
protected by chicken wire, chewed off and gone about 2 feet up.
Relatively quiet, but a fun morning.
Connie Kogler
Twitter @lefthanddbirder
Loveland, CO.
BirdsOTheMorning.com
