Today I went to the property in Highland Lake (northwest of the small Weld County town of Mead) which hosted two male Hooded Warblers a few days ago (plus one last spring and at least one other in a previous year!). Pauli Smith, the owner of the property, triggered my curiosity when she said the birds kept going back to the same Russian-olives and Siberian Elm. The lay of the land (nice trees near a natural sinkhole/lake) is the gross attraction, but the key to them choosing to stay a while to fuel up is mostly APHIDS. The olive had lots of leaf aphids. The elm showed considerable damage from European Elm Flea Weevils, a new arrival in this area which causes elm leaves by late summer to look like they've been hit with buckshot, and a few of the adults were still active in this nice weather we've been having. This weevil from Europe, in just a few short years, has almost replaced Elm Leaf Beetle as the default bird-attracting insect in elms around here.
I also collected other aphid species from her Golden Currant, Apples, and Peach. While on the property, we heard both Evening Grosbeaks fly over and a Greater Yellowlegs across the road by the lake shore. 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 cobi...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
