Things of late at Grandview Cemetery, Fort Collins (Larimer) have not been
particularly rare, the one exception being the first-mentioned below, but they
have certainly been interesting.
Today (4/9) I had juvenile Northern Goshawk. In my judgment, none of the field
guides do a good job of covering the juvenile accipiters but this bird was big,
had grayish-tan teardrops lined up in vertical, quasi-rows on the underparts, a
moderately pale supercillium, somewhat uneven tail bands (but not strongly so),
and a pale grayish-tan back with large white blotches. It was occasionally
calling loudly ("kek", given singly or with at least several seconds between
utterances).
The Great Horned Owls have three babies this year and they are growing very
quickly. The female spends much time out of the nest elm in a nearby spruce,
mostly due to crowding. She has also been scared out of the nest on at least
two occasions that I have witnessed: once by a class of 34 elementary school
kids ringing the base of the nest tree hooting and yelling. When she flew out,
they got even louder. The second human act that caused her to leave involved a
photographer. After she left, I watched him throw a stick up toward the nest
to get the young to pose for a portrait. Presumably, that's also what made her
fly. (Yes, I called him on it and he was so shaken by my swearing in his face
that he stayed photographing for another half hour). At this point I must say
that harassment disguised as adoration is still harassment. As for non-human
harassment of different sorts, I have seen the female adult owl come back to
the nest tree when a squirrel approached to within 5 feet of the nestlings.
Unfortunately, she did not introduce her kids to squirrel sushi and just chased
the intruder off. Because the father owl was a no-show at this appropriate
moment, I have been thinking something might have happened to him (no sightings
during the last month). But this evening, when some crows landed in the nest
tree, I heard the male in a distant spruce. The mother, while definitely
taking note of the crows, did not deem it necessary to go to the elm or chase
them off. The wide-eyed young gazed straight up at the rowdy dark birds in
"their" tree.
Other interesting things of late:
White Pelican (flyover)
Bald Eagle adult (flyover)
Barn Swallow (FOY, 4 singles, all flying southward on 4/7, one chasing a
Sharp-shinned Hawk fly-through)
European Starling imitations of Sora, White-crowned Sparrow, Western
Wood-Pewee, Red-tailed Hawk, American Robin, and American Kestrel
Mountain Chickadee going inside an American Elm cavity (to forage, or related
to nesting?)
Fox Squirrel consumption of a chocolate Easter egg in a package that said "Hear
My Prayer" (the squirrel has been heard).
Red Fox was observed (and the tale told to me by a little girl and her mother)
walking purposefully along, jumping up on a graveside bench, doing a #2,
jumping down, and continuing its mission). Per cemetery rules, this clearly
appears to be a case of first-degree desecration.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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