Highlights at Grandview Cemetery over the last two days (September 20 was a
scouting trip for today's field trip by a visiting fun group from Denver
Audubon):
Yesterday no Barn Swallows for the first time in over 4 months. Today, a few
migrants.
Rock Wren (1) yesterday working the bases of the headstones (which must be very
natural for these birds)
House Wren (1) each day - not a bird seen more than a few times a year at GC
Broad-winged Hawk (1 ad.) yesterday atop a spruce, drawing the ire of two
dive-bombing American Kestrels
Red-eyed Vireo (1) yesterday, quite yellow individual, in hackberry but
apparently not playing the psyllid or berry game, but rather hunting
caterpillars and/or rough stinkbugs (would be my guess). Only my second ever
at GC.
Evening Grosbeak (1) early this morning, a flyover e to w (the second flyover
of this site in the last two weeks, and an addition to the other flyovers
recently at Lake Estes and Crow Valley Campground)
Lincoln's Sparrow (1) skulking along the ditch, very difficult to get a good
look at. Not observed every year at GC.
Surprisingly, no sapsuckers or sapsucker evidence noted yet this fall.
Lots of action in the hackberry trees by birds and squirrels extracting
psyllids from galls, but no major emergence yet of flying adults (which
overwinter in bark crevices).
Today we checked 3 nests used by Broad-tailed Hummingbirds this past summer and
1 used in 2011. The 1-story nests built new this year or last all look pretty
flattened or otherwise shredded and abused. The abnormally tall 3-story nest,
which produced 2 young in each of 2010 and 2012, looks great. We thought long
and hard about what this female is doing that the other moms aren't (using a
different type of super-strong spider web for building material, teaching her
children not to thrash around in bed, what?).
The Turkey Vulture roost about a mile east of the cemetery entrance at Mountain
Avenue and Washington is still populated at night with dozens of individuals.
Their departure for places south must be imminent.
22 species at GC on the 20th, with 21 found today.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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