Hi Everyone,
Bushtits are roaming the parking lot at my workplace in Boulder. They have been
here most days this month. They usually stop flocking and travel separately
when they're nesting, but I have not seen this yet. Last year a pair nested in
an ornamental juniper nearby. That pair was busy by early April, but I don't
have an exact date.
All the neighborhood flickers are getting hormonal and noisy now, so at least
some birds think spring is here.
Mark Miller Longmont, CO
Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S® 5 ACTIVE™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: DAVID A LEATHERMAN <[email protected]>
Date: 2/15/17 2:18 PM (GMT-07:00)
To: COBIRDS <[email protected]>
Subject: [cobirds] Bushtit nesting in Fort Collins
Yesterday, sitting at the computer with my Fort Collins apartment door wide
open, I noticed the familiar tinkling sound of bushtits in the courtyard. Last
year they nested on this property (nest building first noticed on 12March2016)
about a mile
east of CSU and it appears they will do so again. In fact, they are
refurbishing the same nest which successfully produced a brood last summer. In
the "Birds of North America" account on bushtits by Sarah Sloane, it states the
following: "In Chiricahua Mtns.,
se. Arizona, on only 1 occasion was a nest reused a second season, and this
was late in season by a year-old inexperienced male; nest had remained
unusually intact through 2 winters due to heavy concealment in a clump of
mistletoe (SAS). Most nests deteriorate
rapidly when abandoned." The nest here is at the end of a lower branch (about
20 feet above the ground) on the ene side (catches the morning sun) of a large
CO blue spruce. As is typical of the species, the substantial nest "bag" is
well concealed and woven
into the spruce foliage. Even knowing where it is and looking straight up at
the nest site, it takes me a minute or so to locate the nest material hiding in
the needles.
I would also note Coen Dexter mentions in his bushtit account for the
Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas II book that the earliest recorded nest-building
was 17March. Thus, nest-refurbishing on 14February is either a freak event
triggered by hormonal influence on Valentine's Day, preliminary activity
influenced by both warm weather
and the existence of a suitable old structure, an indicator things are
changing, or most likely, just the early end of activity that birders,
especially BBA atlasers accustomed to doing most of their work in "typical"
bird breeding months, have missed.
Anybody else noticing bushtit nesting activity out there?
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
--
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/jbw6i81bblkfkdr0fujk8pwg.1487194863053%40email.android.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
