There is an adult male VARIED THRUSH in the southeastern corner of Grandview Cemetery, west end of Mountain Avenue, Fort Collins (Larimer) as of 4:10pm (first found at about 1:50pm) on Saturday, October 15. The bird was seen in the shady (overtopped with several tall spruce) children's grave section (Section 9) just west of the spruce that was the White-winged Crossbill nest #1 tree (that is, just west of the pumphouse). The bird is quite wary and spends a lot of time up in the spruce perched on limbs, usually near the trunk. It also goes to the ground when the coast is clear and picks around with juncos, chipping sparrows, robins, and flickers. It has been on the road, on the fence which forms the boundary between the City Park 9 golf course and the cemetery.
Best way to see it would be to park far away from the corner, walk to a point where you can watch the shady southeastern corner of Section 9 and just check out every bird that drops down to the ground from the spruce crowns. It can be fairly inconspicuous. It has also been seen flipping over leaves along the edge of the ditch right underneath the crossbill nest tree (best checked from the east side of the little footbridge that goes across the ditch north of the pumphouse. Be patient and plan to wait and watch for at least an hour. Every golf cart, jogger, walker, and car puts it back in the trees for at least 15 minutes. Other birds seen today included Hermit Thrush, White-crowned Sparrow, several juncos (ps, sc, and O), Great Horned Owl (2 sitting almost touching each other in the Champion Honeylocust in Section 8), Yellow-rumped Warbler, Brown Creeper, and interior White-breasted Nuthatch. The Varied Thrush is a new one for the Grandview Cemetery List (#187). 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.
