The Gray Flycatcher was still present this morning. I ran into Dave Leatherman there and we both saw it.
John Shenot Fort Collins, CO On Wednesday, May 1, 2019 at 8:16:17 AM UTC-6, Dave Leatherman wrote: > > Birding on nasty spring days can be glorious, albeit physically > uncomfortable. Watching birds cope is always a reminder of just how good > they are at survival. > > On a tip from Josh Bruening (thank you) regarding a Gray Flycatcher seen > at Grandview Cemetery earlier in the day during a snow squall, I headed > that way in late afternoon. It was still snowing until about 5, when > things moderated a bit and I actually saw a few slivers of blue and the sun > briefly. Here are the highlights of a two-hour visit that only involved > the southeastern corner (Section 9) near the pumphouse. > > Gray Flycatcher - like most of the other birds, it hunted the mini-refuges > under the big spruce trees. With regularity, it spied an insect prey item > (ants?), dashed to the ground and quickly retreated to a dead lower branch, > always on the move, usually giving itself away with "whit" call notes. It > worked all of Section 9 and occasionally got into Sections 7 and 8. > > > > Long-tailed, mostly gray flycatcher with long bi-colored bill, yellow > lower mandible with black tip, whitish outer tail feathers, even eyering > and, oh yeah, it wagged its tail properly (downward motion first, unlike > upward-first other empids). > > Yellow-rumped Warblers (at least 15 of them) were mostly feeding atop the > snow under hackberry trees on adult hackberry gall-making psyllids. > Apparently the egg-laying of these little insects was interrupted by the > storm and they washed off branches and swelling buds above in good > numbers. On the white snow, these dark insects were easy pickings. Many > of the warblers of both types plus intergrades allowed close approach. > Awesome episode. > > > > > > Orange-crowned Warbler (FOY for me) mostly at the base of a smallish > spruce (aphids?) and up in a budding elms/hackberry (usually looking in the > area *under* branches (see photo)). > > > > Hermit Thrush (2, FOY at the cemetery). On the ground under spruce, > suspiciously close to one group of warblers getting psyllids under a > hackberry. Uncommonly bold, as many birds can be when the rigors of food > procurement trump (sorry) normal caution. > > > > Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1 heard only). > > Broad-tailed Hummingbird (1 male heard repeatedly in the same area). Did > not see it, could not figure out what it could have been foraging on unless > it was wet dandelion pollen or maybe Ohio buckeye tree flowers. Pine sap > would have been available at some of the sapwells made by the recently > departed Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers but the bird was not near those areas. > Days like the last two would elevate the value of feeders beyond just > facilitating our observation of the birds. > > 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/da170108-44c2-4f88-b1f0-04f1a8074b0b%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
