Spotted Towhee is another. Some 10 years ago one started wintering in my yard, 10 miles from the foothills. This year I saw fledglings.
On Friday, July 23, 2021 at 12:53:46 PM UTC-6 Dave Leatherman wrote: > Over the past 45 years or so of visiting Fort Collins' Grandview Cemetery > and also spending a lot of time on the eastern plains at places like the > Pawnee Grasslands and Lamar, the occasional and seemingly increasing > presence of foothills/lower mountain species at low elevation has intrigued > me. > > I have mostly attributed this to maturation of the "urban forest", > especially Colorado Blue Spruce but certainly other conifers and many > deciduous trees, as well. > > Species with the bulk of their breeding habitat in the foothills and lower > mountains that sometimes breed in Grandview Cemetery include: red-breasted > nuthatch (of late, every year), broad-tailed hummingbird (of late, every > year), western wood-pewee (of late, 2 out of every 3 years), chipping > sparrow (of late, every other year), ruby-crowned kinglet (of late, every > third year), red crossbill (ever(?), once), western tanager (ever(?), once). > > Now I am beginning to wonder about cordilleran flycatcher. In the last > couple weeks there have been reports of this species at the > prairie-foothills interface from several locations along the Front Range on > COBIRDS. Last weekend I can add another from the River's Edge Natural Area > in Loveland (Big Thompson River near the softball complex at the old > fairgrounds). The Loveland bird was a male giving the characteristic > territorial "squeek-itt!" call. Other recent reports have mentioned > detection via this same vocalization. > > I have questions. BBAII accounts indicate one nesting cycle and attribute > late nests to renesting after early nest failures. The "Birds of the > World" account for this species mentions the likelihood of two nesting > cycles in Oaxaca, MX. Do the recent reports represent second-try nesting > at lower elevation? Do they represent second nestings at lower elevation > after a successful nesting higher up? Do they represent post-breeding > dispersal, with the individuals simply vocalizing in the lower elevation > area they moved to as if on territory? Does the "new normal" of fires and > smoke in the mountains of the West have anything to do with what appears to > be a shift to lower elevations at this time of year? > > We birders need to keep reporting our presence/absence and behavioral > observations of all species, including common ones, and I still > maintain COBIRDS is a good place to do that. Thanks to everyone who makes > the effort to post to COBIRDS, especially if that means extra effort > because you also did an eBird checklist or posted to some other media. > There is no such thing as "excessive" communication. > > Dave Leatherman > Fort Collins > -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/CFO/Membership/ --- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/7a5d038d-165d-47af-a725-16cf5ad0cb4an%40googlegroups.com.
