Grandview Cemetery (in answer to some inquiries, no, I don't have a plot there) in Fort Collins (Larimer) at the west terminus of Mountain Avenue, has been quite interesting of late.
Yesterday I found an active Broad-tailed Hummingbird nest, with perhaps two, new, so-far silent, nestlings being fed about every 20 minutes by the female. As in the other cases at Grandview, the nest is in a blue spruce. At least part of what the mother is bringing the youngsters appears to be Cooley spruce adelgids recently emerged from their galls and now either flying or settled on needles of spruce or Douglas-fir. I borrowed a ladder and checked the inactive hummer nest found about 10 days ago in another part of cemetery. This is apparently an abandoned or dummy nest and is interestingly filled to the brim with spider webbing and other fluff (cottonwood seeds?). The proportions of the unused nest are distinctly different than the active one. The active nest is a "ball" (that is, about as deep as wide). The unused nest is at least twice as deep as wide. Not sure if this means anything or is standard design for the two types of nests. Of course, there is also the possibility the deep nest is not Broad-tailed but perhaps an abandoned Black-chinned (never known to be in Grandview but the day is coming, I suspect). Would a Broad-tailed ever fill up another type of hummingbird's nest as a form of discouragement? Anybody know anything about this? I better quit the runaway speculating, at least out loud. My take on the cowbird/kinglet situation is now two nests of Ruby-crowned Kinglet parasitized and a total of 3 fledged juvenile cowbirds. Three days ago I saw two young cowbirds, one in a juniper being fed by a male kinglet, the other in a nearby linden being fed by a female kinglet. Yesterday Dave Steingraeber and I saw a young cowbird in another part of the cemetery being tended by two adult kinglets. If one didn't know any better, seeing a big bird flying from tree to tree with two little birds looks like an adult with two offspring in tow. Just the opposite. Ruby-crowned Kinglets are among the smallest and rarest of cowbird hosts. There is a statement in the kinglet BNA account that it is unknown if birds this small are even capable of rearing cowbirds to independence. I think the Grandview hosts are close to pulling it off. The young cowbirds can fly very well, go down to the ground on their own, peck around, then remember they're true members of the entitlement generation, fly into a tree, call incessantly, and get pampered. The number of confirmed breeders for within the cemetery proper is 21 species for 2011. One notable difference in this tally from that of 2010 is the absence of the White-winged Crossbills. The current concept for the book I have threatened to write about LIFE in the cemetery involves not only documenting the cycle of events, but comparing these two back-to-back years. 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.
