Upon arrival at the southeast corner of Grandview Cemetery this morning at just before 7am, no nestlings were visible in the nest. The parents did not come in until 7:43 (late). They acted distressed. They did not go into the nest. I saw a fox squirrel in the nest right at 8:00. I saw the parent crossbills in the vicinity of the nest at least 4 other times today, always acting very strangely, just calling and flying around from here to there, never going into the nest tree or any other place a nestling might be. The female did more calling than I 've heard her do since beginning to incubate in mid-March. I once the crossbill pair fly with another similar-looking bird and got my hopes up it was a fledgling. It was a male Red Crossbill. I think this nesting attempt came one or two days short of being successful and my conclusion is that squirrels got the young late yesterday afternoon or night, or early this morning. After seeing the squirrel in the nest, I walked around under the tree and looked for any evidence of what might have happened. When I got back over to the corner where my scope and camera were, a squirrel had eaten my breakfast muffin, adding insult to injury.
I will continue to go over there for a few days, just to see what the adults do, and, of course, I will post the results. There is a remote chance they might try again. The cemetery irrigation system was reactivated today for the summer, so puddles of water would be available daily. Bummer, but that's life in a cemetery, or jungle, or anywhere, for that matter. On the bright side, for the first time this spring, one of the baby Great Horned Owls was visible next to the mother and seemed very curious about the sounds an overhead starling was making. 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.
