Ken Ecton and I made the pilgrimage to Julesburg this morning, then, tried for Brad and Mark's crossbills in Holyoke. Thanks to Rachel for posting updates from the morning.
Julesburg just east of US385 between the two Platte River bridges (between I-76 and the town): COMMON GROUND-DOVE at generally the west end of the sandy, two-track loop (i.e., the "usual" location). We got there about 7:55am, didn't see it until about 8:30. At the time a pretty serious snow squall was starting up and the temperature was below 20 degrees. The bird mostly pecked on the ground at very tiny objects I am assuming were grass (or some other type of small plant) seeds. When not on the sandy road or other bare places (old river channels/depressions, for example), the bird flew up (with a distinctive stiff-winged chatter) and perched 5-10 feet above the ground on tree branches (cottonwoods and naturalized green ashes are about its only choices on the site). We noticed the snowberry bushes Bill Maynard mentioned, but never saw the bird directly involved with them. Of note, the area also has a fair amount of wild sunflowers, which may be influential in its choice of this spot. I checked the BNA account and not much is specifically known about their diet, but in the few studies that have been done many of the plants mentioned as part of the winter diet probably occur on the site (according to Weber). These include panic grass (Panicum sp.), dovegrass (Croton texenis), pigweed (Amaranthus sp.), maybe carpetweed (Mollugo verticillata, which occurs on sand bars along Front Range watercourses), purslane (Portulaca oleracea), and some of the nutsedges (Cyperus spp.). Small berries are also mentioned, so the snowberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis) may, indeed, be on the menu. Probably many plants could be utilized, but my bet would be a few are key to its loyalty to that one little area. It would be neat to know what they are. The account for this dove does not mention sunflower seeds, either wild or at feeders (which may or may not mean anything). Lastly, at one point when the snow really picked up, and not in response to us, we saw the dove fly west across US385 to the southwest and appear to land in the easternmost 4-5 trees of a tall juniper row. Perhaps this is where the bird roosts and/or goes during adverse weather. But it seems to keep coming back east across the road to the west half of the sandy loop road. As has been said many times, great find Steve and Tim. Rusty Blackbird (2) perched fairly high in a cottonwood near the river channel north of the loop at 8am White-breasted Nuthatch (eastern race based on "yank" and pale color) Between Julesburg and Holyoke on US385: Lapland Longspurs by the hundreds (over 1000?) Holyoke Cemetery (in the extreme southeastern part of town, east of US385): HOODED WARBLER (female) - chipping loudly, rather furiously pecking around on the ground, mostly under junipers, at something we could never figure out (maybe hackberry psyllids, maybe aphids, maybe ants, not sure). Most of our visit she was in the northeastern quadrant of this 5-10 acre cemetery. Our reason for checking out the cemetery (and driving to Holyoke in the first place) was the recent wonderful find of both crossbills by Mark and Brad and their suggestion the cemetery might be a back-up place to check. We saw no crossbills anywhere in Holyoke (which means nothing, probably). Great-tailed Grackles near the grain elevators north of Rte6 in Holyoke (maybe 15) Julesburg Ground-Dove Site (very brief stop in early afternoon): COMMON GROUND-DOVE back at its normal place Ovid (south of Rte138 (= "Main" e-w road) between the two bridges w of the old Sugar Beet Factory): NO STUB-TAILED WREN that we could detect Brown Creeper (1, found by Ken) White-breasted Nuthatch (2, eastern) Jumbo Reservoir: A "white-out" of geese. We didn't spend a lot of time sorting thru waterfowl on the main body of water. Very cold and windy, we were tired. Little Jumbo: White-fronted Goose (at least 3) 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.
