As reported by Joe Mammoser and Cade Cropper recently, there is at least one
newly-arrived Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins at
the west end of Mountain Avenue (Larimer). Starting about last mid-week
(14Nov) Joe found, and I saw briefly, a sapsucker which we both thought was a
young bird and both thought looked very black-and-white backed (like a
Red-naped, as opposed to a black-and-tan backed Yellow-bellied). SeEtta is
right that the great, great majority of juvenile sapsuckers at this time of
year should be Yellow-bellied, but Joe and I have seen a fair number of
sapsuckers in our time in CO and this bird and/or the looks it provided were
not straight-forward. Birds often don't read the books or BNA accounts.
Occasional Red-napes show no red on the back of the head, migration timing is
off (particularly when it has been as mild as this autumn has been), plus this
particular individual was the master at never coming lower than 50 feet, never
staying still, never staying in the same tree longer than half a minute, never
vocalizing, always thinking the sap was greener/sweeter on the other side of
the branch, etc.
At any rate, there is now present a male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (plumage
somewhat less spectacular than full adult, especially in the extent of red on
the crown, and the brightness of red on the throat), which almost certainly
(despite our admittedly poor views) can't be the same bird Joe first detected.
As Joe and Cade reported, it has been over along the mid-south edge of the
cemetery in the small (5 trees) Austrian Pine grove just out on City Park Nine
golf course (just west of the green doublewide portapotty just onto the course
quite visible from the southwestern part of the cemetery. On a few occasions
it has been in American Elms just into the cemetery north of the aforementioned
pine grove. And apparently the same bird has been in the pines just east of
the cemetery entrance just south of an area the cemetery/golf course crew use
for storage of sand, mulch, leaves, etc. (i.e., just southwest of the building
which houses the Mountain Avenue trolley). The pines are Scots Pines for the
most part. I have seen the bird there twice, including today. When a
truculent band of golfers files too close to the pines, I think its usual
retreat is a small grove of pines in the traffic island at the western end of
Mountain Avenue (i.e., just east of the cemetery entrance between Grandview
Avenue and Frey Avenue).
Other interesting birds seen at Grandview in the last 3 days include:
Bald Eagle (Basic I) flyover
Prairie Falcon (flyover)
Red Crossbill (1 has been around on a couple occasions, usually flying over but
heard once in the top of a spruce in the extreme southeastern corner (near the
famous White-winged Crossbill first nest tree)).
Bushtit (flock of 20 and a flock of 6 seen whipping thru in their typical
"Type A behavior" fashion - they must die of heart attacks, most of them).
Harlan's Hawk (today over the northwest corner there was a bird very similar to
what Wheeler depicts in his Peterson Field Guide to Hawks as an "intermediate"
morph). There has also been a light-morph, normal-looking Red-tail in this
area also.
Plenty of action in the hackberries with robins, flickers, starlings,
Townsend's Solitaire (although juniper berries are still obviously their
favorite food) and Cedar Waxwings - all eating hackberries. Earlier this fall
a large flock of American Crows descended on a large hackberry and ate
hackberries like barbarians for over an hour. Small birds still work the
remaining leaves and bark for gall psyllids (especially Brown Creepers, plus
both chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatch, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Downy
Woodpecker).
No siskins (or redpolls) of late. Lots of Mountain Chickadees. Great Horned
Owls present but difficult to find most days. GHO preliminary hooting/courting
should begin any week.
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 https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
