Highlights of a multi-hour, afternoon visit in cool, overcast weather to Grandview Cemetery (GC), Fort Collins (Larimer) today (4/13/2011):
Red Crossbill (3 non-red individuals, appear/sound to be Type 2's?) - these birds have been around for the last few days and spend their time in an assortment of ways, including feeding on Blue Spruce seeds extracted from cones, eating American Elm seeds, sitting in a Northern Red Oak (either eating buds or wiping pitch from their bill, couldn't tell which), going to the ditch for puddled water, and even visiting tube feeders at a house east of the entrance (getting something light yellow, which could be either millet or cracked corn (when I find out from the owner, I'll post the answer)). Crossbills of any species or type have NOT been present at GC this past winter (very few cones produced on spruce last summer). They were seen on a couple dates last October, and then this spring only of late. Sharp-shinned Hawk (1 small individual, presumably a male) Cooper's Hawk (1, a local breeder, carrying a sharp-tailed bird (Mourning Dove?), yesterday the daily special was robin) Lesser Goldfinch (1 pair courting) Dark-eyed Junco (heard, one of the last of the wintering individuals or possibly a migrant) Red-breasted Nuthatch (few, including one excavating its own cavity in a dead American Elm branch stub) Pine Siskin (several, well into their first nesting cycle, after not being present all winter) Double-crested Cormorant (2 flyovers) Hairy Woodpecker (1m) not an everyday species at GC Downy Woodpecker (2) Great Horned Owl (female sitting very high on the nest, young birds should start being visible any time now) *The coolest thing I've seen lately: yesterday some of the Black-capped Chickadees were working Snowball Viburnum shrubs for the eggs of aphids (look like very tiny, shiny black jellybeans near the buds and in lengthwise bark ridges along one-year old twigs) and possibly European Fruit Lecanium (Scale) nymphs. Sounds tough, but I've personally witnessed college-educated humans make a meal out of M&Ms. [The wintering, joined-at-the-hip duo of Brown Creepers and Golden-crowned Kinglets appears to have left for higher elevation] Total of 26 species (tied with 4/8 for best species total of 2011) 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]. 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.
