The exciting news today was, first, seeing the White-winged Crossbill pair after not seeing them landed within the Grandview Cemetery (Fort Collins, west terminus of Mountain Avenue, Larimer County) since February 18th. This makes Day 98. They were fairly active in the extreme southeast corner (Section 9 mostly, and also the nearby ditch). The second thing is most exiciting - the female was clearly seen carrying nest material! Joe and Jennifer Yurkovic were with me when we saw the female fly into a silver maple just south of the nest tree spruce. While I was moving to get a better view, the Yurkovics both saw her carry material from a Fox Squirrel leaf nest in the maple a short distance into the mid-crown area of the spruce. This spruce is the spruce closest to the pumphouse (between the pumphouse and the footbridge that crosses over the ditch in the extreme southeast corner of the cemetery). Later we saw her gather shredded bark material from a mid-crown branch of a cottonwood just west of the corner into the spruce. Both birds were seen in other trees fussing with twigs and on the ground picking up leafy debris, but the first two episodes are the only certain acts of carrying nest material we saw. If I had to guess at the stage of the nest, the material they had looked more like liner than nest base. That is, I'd say they were putting the finishing touches on things (trim and carpet), not just starting (framing).
It is perhaps ironic that, given squirrels are perhaps crossbills' biggest nest predators, that they were using squirrel nest material to supplement their own nest. The male did a lot of singing between 10:45am and 1:30pm. Both birds were on the ground at least three times, in the ditch right below the nest tree in the undercut portion of the bank where many roots protrude and loop out away from the soil and then back in, and under a few spruce south of the nest tree just out on the golfcourse. They fed per normal out at the ends of branches on open cones for some the period between 9am and 4pm, but I'd say this was far from the "main" thing they did. For the majority of time during my visit, the birds were indetectible. Others who saw the birds today were the Lynn and Liz Willcockson, Polleke Siraa, and Allen Hagood. Of course, I will be following this event. Tomorrow's goal is getting a photograph of the female with nest material in her mouth. I blew my chances today. Total of 26 species today. In addition to the crossbills, Siskins, House Finches, juncos, flickers, Black-capped Chickadees were all singing their own versions of spring/courtship song today. Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds". 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.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en Visit the CFO Website at: www.cfo-link.org
