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
>
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