As I understand the recent changes to the ABA listing rules that Ira brings up,
this may influence the CO List in regards to California Condor. Does anyone
remember when the Grand Canyon condors visited the Grand Mesa of Colorado? A
good source informed me the condors introduced back to their historic nesting
cliffs at the Grand Canyon began to reproduce on their own in 2004. One of the
new rules seems to indicate after such a date for this kind of reintroduction
into a former historic nesting area, the species is "countable". If the CO
sighting was in 2004 or later, maybe we have a new bird on the CO list. My
unclear memory of the CO condor episode tells me it was before 2004, but maybe
I'm in error. Comments?
On a related but different subject, I am very disappointed by our Colorado DPW
decision to introduce non-native Chukars into new areas for very shallow
reasons supported by what I suspect is shallow ecological pre-study. I guess
only when us tax payers are willing to fund this agency from general funds (as
opposed to license fees only), can we expect them to do anything other than
cater to their base. Chukar introductions in new places are NOT the fault,
really, of the current agency employees carrying out orders from on high. And,
I would stress, I have nothing against hunting and fishing when done within
sound ecological guidelines but............ When will we learn? I say no more
new hybrid fish. No more introductions of non-native species. Non-game
species matter. I'm not trying to stir up a big debate on this forum but just
getting some things off my chest.
Had a late Townsend's Warbler in my Fort Collins yard today (eating psyllids in
boxelder). Maybe some more good warblers are still coming for what has been a
lackluster passerine migration in northeastern CO. I would remind everybody
what John Shenot recently pointed out about hackberry psyllids - just prior to
this cold, wet stretch of days, in Fort Collins the gall psyllid hatch (two
species coming from both blister and nipple type galls) was peaking or could be
considered just past peak (i.e. retreating into their overwintering sites in
the bark of host trees and especially nearby spruce trees). That means a
similar flight (look for tiny "gnats" milling about in the air) should be
peaking in areas to the south of here as soon as we return to daily highs in
the 60s, and this tree is worth searching for small migrants. That said, I
would also comment that because the temps have been fairly mild to this point
this fall, all trees are supporting insect populations to some extent, and
hackberry is not the standout species it normally is.
Dave 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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/SNT148-W8099C0BB585400B6D0BEC1C1AE0%40phx.gbl.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
