Here are a few recent (past week) observations: Here, just north of Haystack and west of Lagerman, there are many oriole families, blue grosbeak families, Eas. & west. kingbird families, and an indigo (that rose-breasted grosbeak moved on). I think Ted is right; there are more Cassin's kingbirds that we've thought. I'm scrutinizing every one now.
I noticed a robin drinking from the oriole feeder one evening. Never saw that before! My Say's phoebes (always lagging behind Kay Niyo's) are feeding fledglings, in their somewhat sporadic way. What a contrast with the tree swallows, who (in two of our boxes) feed their kids every 10 seconds! Of course, the aunts & uncles are helping them out. Which reminds me that 3 evenings ago, I saw our phoebes interacting in a very friendly "I recognize you" manner with a third one, near their nest. A previous offspring, perhaps. The phoebes are timid little souls. When they spot a jay in the yard, they both sit on their favorite perches and give their tiny whining cries. Eventually I go out and scare off the jay, which seems to create a sudden surge of energy from the phoebes. They take off after the departing jay with much beak-clacking and wing-snapping. While returning home from an early count last week, I observed three large birds ahead of me in the air along our access road: a vulture, a bald eagle & a red-tailed hawk. (Later I saw that the latter had a young hawk, probably fledged young, perched nearby). The RTHA and BAEA were tussling, in that dramatic, body-rolling manner, and I saw that the eagle had claimed (what I presume to be) the rabbit caught by the hawk. After some quarreling about it, the eagle went to ground, clutching its prize. The hawks retreated to a tree to sulk, and the vulture moved on. The eagle (which I think might be one of those nesting near Lagerman the past couple of years) started to walk home, towards the east, lurching along like a drunken sailor with the large rabbit clutched in one talon. As I watched incredulously, it eventually became apparent to the eagle that this was the hard way to get anywhere. It struggled to get off the ground but did so and flew east. The hawks did not pursue. A final question: Bill Kaempfer, Dave Hallock and I have been scratching our heads over a sighting I had (with spouse) at 9500 ft east of the Peak to Peak hwy, at a small unnamed lake near Beaver Lake. I --the ignorant -- labeled it right away (Sibley in hand) as an out-of-plumage Western Sandpiper. Now I am learning that this is "wildly unlikely" (Bill's words), and have worked all week to figure out an alternative. But so far, I cannot find one. All the field marks match, but the season does not. I'll probably turn the whole thing over to the Rare Birds Experts and let them debate it. But has anyone ever heard of such a thing in early July? (Note that I ruled out all the easy answers with research). Thanks, Linda Andes-Georges near Lagerman Res, cntrl Bouldr Cnty -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/61726918-7B22-42D2-8BEB-A87E72DBFB29%40comcast.net. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
