Grandview Cemetery, west end of Mountain Avenue, Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado:
Well, to be blunt about it, yesterday afternoon a Sharp-shinned Hawk apparently ate the young crossbills in the nest. I was there when it happened, but wasn't aware of it. I was talking with a visitor to the site for quite a while and not looking thru the scope, when we heard a serious commotion in Section 9, just west of the nest tree. Both crossbill adults, several siskins, Red-breasted Nuthatches, House Finches, and robins were upset at something in the crown of one of the spruce trees. This went on for over an hour, roughly from 5-6pm. After walking around quite a bit, I finally noticed a Sharp-shinned Hawk (I think an adult male) up in the center of all the turmoil. I remember remarking to Nancy Drilling of RMBO, who was now at the scene, that the hawk acted the way accipiters do following a meal - just "vegetating" and wanting to be left alone to digest their food. Apparently because of Nancy and I moving directly under the tree it was in, the hawk flew and disappeared. The little birds acted as if it was still in the area but we never saw the hawk again. Around 6pm the crossbills returned to the nest tree, fed half-heartedly on the upper crown cones and then both flew off together to the east. Since I had seen the female settle on the nest and close her eyes the day before (April 4th) at 7:04, we waited around to see if and when the female would come back to the nest. By 7:20 or so it was dark enough that seeing much at the nest with a scope was problematic, so we called it off. This morning the parents were in the nest tree and area, with the male calling almost constantly. The female fed on cones in the nest tree much of the time. Those of us who were there did not see the adults go into the nest area of the nest tree, except for a few times very briefly. So, this nesting attempt ended on Day 134 of their visit. The adults were still present on Day 135. We will see what happens next, but my guess is the pair of adult White-winged Crossbills will disappear very soon and the other finches will utilize at least some of the crossbill nest material for adding to their own nests. I will admit to being sad about how this all ended, but it wasn't unexpected and is in keeping with the known habits of accipiters, cup-nesting passerine birds, urban forests, and the natural world in general. We learned a lot. Both Lou Hedegus and Frank Stermitz got great video yesterday of both adults on the ground foraging for grit and snow, and Lou got digiscoped pics of one baby with his/her peachfuzz hairdo sitting in the sun above the nest rim a few hours before its demise. I am guessing the total number of birding visitors to this event at over 600. Also of note today were a number of predators. In keeping with my experience that when the clouds are moving two different directions during spring and fall, seeing a variety of hawks is likely: Sharp-shinned Hawk (1 male), Cooper's Hawk (1 immature, probably female), 1 Osprey (eating the remains of a fish in the elm directly north of the Great Horned Owl nest tree), 1 Red-tailed Hawk (sailing north up high, where the wind was moving s to n, as opposed to lower where the clouds were moving n to s), and 1 Great Horned Owl (female on the nest, male somewhere unknown nearby, young still out of sight under the mother). Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- 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] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en To unsubscribe, reply using "remove me" as the subject.
