Thank you for this most interesting post. Yesterday, September 11th, Jane Stulp and I birded Lamar Community College Woods for approximately and hour and thirty minutes and we made run throughs of three other Lamar sites, which included Fairmont Cemetery. 3 Gray Catbirds were the best birds of the morning and were found at LCC. Dotti Russell birded Riverside Cemetery and found nothing noteworthy.
Janeal Thompson Lamar Prowers Colorado On Friday, September 12, 2014 9:16:47 AM UTC-6, Dave Leatherman wrote: > > I woke up yesterday morning and here's what it was like in my yard and > my patch at Grandview Cemetery (Larimer). First sound coming thru the > front door was that of a Western Tanager foraging on big true bugs > (probably *Leptoglossus* sp.) in my apartment courtyard junipers (Fort > Collins neighborhood a mile east of the CSU campus). A few Wilson's > Warblers worked the boxelder (probably for psyllids). A Rock Wren, > decidedly NOT normal in the courtyard, called. A group of short-tailed > swallows buzzed over in the fog (probably Violet-greens, based on Steve M's > amazing observation two days ago at Golden Pond in Longmont per this > species). Across the street in a dead-topped poplar sat a raptor which > proved to be an Osprey. Wow. The day was *not* normal. The big > prediction must be true. > > Then I went to Grandview Cemetery and would agree with what Nick said > about a nearly complete lack of local turnover. In fact I would say I saw > less numbers and diversity today than has been there the two times I've > gone in the last week or so (in the way of "data" I had 22 species on the > 3rd, 37 spp. on the 7th, and 15 spp. on the 11th, the latter being one of > my lowest totals for the site ever) . In contrast, however, was perhaps > the largest collection of Red Crossbills I have seen there in 1500+ visits, > working the new crop of spruce cones. Tough to really count them, but the > total had to exceed *100* individuals. One of them, sitting off by > itself, was giving a very different call than the majority, which I am > calling Type 2s. It flew just as I raised my binocular. Would love to > know what Type that was. Also present was a Grosbeak, never seen but > presumably a Black-headed, and a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird (getting > late). > > I applaud what Brian and Ted are trying to add to our toolbox as birders > wanting to understand the subjects of our passion. Ultimately, I guess, > there is no substitute for going out and seeing what really happens. We > need more predictions, followed by real world tests. And, we need more > birders in the "outposts". Mlodinow, Peterson, Walbek, the Maynards, > Kaempfer, Suddjean, Kellner and the other "finders" who scatter to the far > corners from the Front Range can't be everywhere. Come back to Julesburg, > Henry. Keep working the southeast Jane and Janeal. Thanks for monitoring > the SLV Mr. Rawinski. Go Coen and Brenda. Everybody, don't give up > reporting to COBIRDS. Why is there a separate reporting network for the > West Slope? Did we recruit anybody to the ranks in Sterling? I'll wager > nobody was near Brian's blue line out east yesterday. Too bad. > > My final comment on this subject relates to a comment/question Brian > posed. Re the subject of rain in conjunction with "weather", I would > suggest its presence DOES probably influence insectivores and > insectivores-forced-to-be-facultative-frugivores (or herbivores), to the > extent rain tends to knock flying insects to the ground, and lowers the > average height of insects feeding/resting in vegetation. In follows that > birds needing to eat would stop flying, ground themselves, and when > grounded, be lower, finding whatever they could find, and, therefore, more > detectible by birders. > > Dave Leatherman > Fort Collins > > David Leatherman > -- 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/85d777c7-cbfc-43c2-9f65-8addbfdfdea7%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
