Another great visit to Grandview Cemetery (Fort Collins, Larimer County, Easter Sunday, 7:30am to 2:30pm). Highlights included:
Wood Duck (two pairs present, flying around, perching in tall trees, only my second time ever at Grandview, both times in late April) Adult hackberry psyllid activity noted for the first time this year. I suspected as much when the few Yellow-rumped Warblers present, and at least one of the Ruby-crowned Kinglets, lingered in various hackberries, sallying, and hover-gleaning in response to flushing the overwintering adults now moving to the swelling hackberry buds to lay eggs. Later I found a few adult psyllids on my jacket, in my car, etc. Hackberries would be good to check for migrating passerines throughout CO at this time. Is there a hackberry at the scene of the vireo and good warblers of late in Boulder? Somebody needs to figure out the secret to that hotspot. Townsend's Solitaire (at least 3, an indication the mass-movement from the lowlands to the foothills is continuing) Lesser Goldfinch (adult male, green-backed form) - spotted near the entrance by Betsy Higgins, from Massachusetts and a member of the famous grouse trip that recently spotted the Prothonotary Warbler at Holly. Ruby-crowned Kinglet (at least two, lots of singing, perhaps a pair will breed at the cemetery, as is the case about every-other year) Dark-eyed Junco (several, including a few Oregon and one Gray-headed, some singing) Broad-winged Hawk (FOY for me, one adult, light-morph flew low thru the cemetery about 11am, and kept on going north, I think) Cooper's Hawk (1f terrorized the starlings at least twice this morning, but no predation that I could detect) Great Horned Owl (these birds continue to mesmerize an ever-increasing collection of adoring fans with big cameras and minimal ethics (to be fair, most, but not all) - today we had multi-hour sittings with flash, loud talking, door slamming, half-hour cell phone calls right below the nest crotch 20 feet overhead, talking (as best I could tell from afar it was baby talk, since the nestlings are, after all, babies), waving to the birds, parking so close to the tree that one rear tire was raised a bit by the elm's root flair, you name it). This happens every year and the owls keep using the site, so I guess their limit is higher than mine. White Pelican (flock of about 30 off to the west flying along the foothills) Chipping Sparrow (flock of 30+, mostly bathing in the ditch) Lincoln's Sparrow (1 in the muddy ditch, at the base of lilacs, etc.) Total of 36 species (highest total of the year and only one shy of my highest total ever for Grandview). This spring's crop (2 or 3) of Red Fox pups appeared above the front door to their below-ground culvert home for perhaps their first time today. 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 cobirds@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.
