Great post as always. I love the Song Sparrow picture. You mentioned the abundance of House Wren which made me think of the lack of Yellow-rumped Warblers I am noticing. I don't see any no matter where I go. They are usually so common.
On Sunday, June 17, 2018 at 7:53:55 PM UTC-6, Dave Leatherman wrote: > > I took a long walk on this wonderfully cloudy, cool, humid Father's Day > along the Poudre River in Fort Collins both north and south of Prospect > Road between 9am and 3pm. > > > *Highlights north of Prospect on the west side of the river (Riverbend > Ponds/Cattail Chorus Natural Areas):* > > *An amazing number of House Wrens (over a dozen). This species seems to > be more common than historically normal citywide this summer. > > *Western Wood-Pewee (heard) > > *Eastern Kingbird (heard) > > *Active, large colony of Cliff Swallows under the Prospect Rd. bridge over > the Poudre > > *Dot-tailed Whitefaces (dragonfly) > > *Freshly emerged Edward's Fritillary > > *Lots of kids ridding bikes with their dads > > > Misses: vireos, buntings, orioles, warblers, cuckoos, small herons > > > *Highlights south of Prospect east of the river (Cottonwood Hollow and > Running Deer NAs):* > > *Mixture of swallows feeding low over the ponds and Hagemann's Recycling > Center that included Violet-greens and Banks > > *Small group of Great Egrets (6) feeding in the old "Artist's Point Pond", > formally drained but still currently holding a fair amount of seep from the > river. More about these to follow. > > *Few White Pelicans > > *Osprey nest active on the power pole just e of the river on the south > side of Prospect. > > *Cinnamon Teal > > *Momma Pied-billed Grebe with a couple harlequin-faced young > > *Yellow-headed Blackbird male scratching furiously at a hole, then pecking > intensely (I scared it off - the hole was where it had flipped a tennis > ball-sized rock, exposing a colony of very small, edible ants) > > *Lazuli Bunting (heard only) > > *Virginia Rails (heard at least 3, listened for Sora and Black Rail but > did not hear any) > > *Marsh Wren (heard 1) > > > OK, here's the real highlight. All the medium-sized and bigger willows > along the river are infested with leaf beetles. The main one, highly > variable in pattern, is what we think is *Chrysomela knabi*, one of the > so-called "willow leaf beetles". A few cottonwood leaf beetles (*C. > scripta*) are feeding with them. > > > > > Willow leaf beetles: adult upper left, > others are pupae, leaf damage (skeletonizing type) caused by larvae. > > > Today I saw one Song Sparrow with a beakful of these beetles headed for > the mouths of nestlings. > > > > > > > And......the Great Egrets were up in leaf beetle-infested willows in the > northwest corner of Pelican Pond stabbing furiously at length (20 minutes) > for what I think had to be these same beetles! > > > > > > 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/a9edeab4-1935-48fd-b870-6b94811a3048%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
