Re: [cobirds] Boulder raven antics

[Norm Lewis]

I would not have mentioned this, but I thought it would make an interesting 
piggy-back on Elena's comments.  Ted Cooper and I did a trip yesterday that 
started at Red Rocks, and wound its way from Baseline to Legion Park, on to 
Cottonwood Marsh and 75th Street, over to the "cardinal site", up to 
Allenspark, back through Ward and finally ending at Valmont for a very 
interesting "gull hour" with Ted Floyd.  We saw lots of great birds along the 
way, but nothing worthy of posting that hadn't been previously mentioned by 
Mike Henwood and Ted.  However, as we were driving up to the cardinal locality, 
we were stopped at an intersection when we saw a pigeon behaving strangely; it 
was flying into a corner formed by the intersection of two buildings and seemed 
to be in a total panic.  The source of the pigeon's distress quickly became 
apparent.  Two ravens were pursuing the bird into the corner with obvious evil 
intent.  They harrassed it into a collision with a door and through several 
(for a pigeon) fairly impressive aerial maneuvers. The pigeon ultimately 
escaped, and I commented that I had never seen ravens acting like raptors.  
They did not have the skills to bring down the pigeon, but it was not for lack 
of trying.

Norm

Norm Lewis
migran...@aol.com



-Original Message-
From: elena 
To: cobirds Colorado Field Ornithoogists 
Sent: Fri, Dec 28, 2012 9:45 pm
Subject: [cobirds] Boulder raven antics


Yesterday at the 29th Street Mall in Boulder, a pair of common ravens was 
perched in the roof trusses of the roof over the parking garage.  Their 
vocalizations were tremendously amplified, resonating through the garage and 
the 
walkway.   They weren't feeding on anything, just sitting and calling.  We 
traded a number of resonant "quorks" and I would have stayed to see what they 
were going to do but had an appointment at the Apple store. Then today at 1 pm 
a 
raven chased a red tailed hawk over Valmont and 28th street, both zigzagging 
pretty low over the traffic.  


Elena Holly Klaver,  Niwot

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[cobirds] Boulder raven antics

[elena]

Yesterday at the 29th Street Mall in Boulder, a pair of common ravens was 
perched in the roof trusses of the roof over the parking garage.  Their 
vocalizations were tremendously amplified, resonating through the garage and 
the walkway.   They weren't feeding on anything, just sitting and calling.  We 
traded a number of resonant "quorks" and I would have stayed to see what they 
were going to do but had an appointment at the Apple store. Then today at 1 pm 
a raven chased a red tailed hawk over Valmont and 28th street, both zigzagging 
pretty low over the traffic.  


Elena Holly Klaver,  Niwot

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[cobirds] Hummingbird Identification?

[Lynn Ackerman]

Can anyone help identify this hummingbird which was spotted in Phoenix, AZ
last week?  It is a regular to the feeder in a suburban location.  Thank
you!

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[cobirds] Upcoming CBC on Jan 1, Tuesday, Loveland CO

[Nick Komar]

Quick note to let everyone know that there is still space to join a team for 
the Loveland CBC in southeast Larimer County on Jan 1, New Year’s Day. Skilled 
observers in particular are needed for some of the sectors. Interesting birds 
that have been seen this month in the circle include Black Brant, Greater 
White-fronted Goose, Greater Scaup, Thayer’s and Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 
Long-eared Owl, Pine Warbler, White-throated Sparrow and Common Redpoll. No 
guarantees of course :-). And there will be an owling party starting at 4 am. 
Contact me or register through Audubon.org (for the COLV count). No fees, and 
free pizza at the compilation dinner thanks to our sponsors.

Nick Komar
Fort Collins CO
Loveland CBC compiler

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Re: [cobirds] Mallard hybrid

[Nick Komar]

This is where photographs come in handy. However, based on the description of 
essentially an apparent female Mallard with a yellow bill, what comes to my 
mind is “Mexican” Mallard. All ages of male American Black Duck would be quite 
a bit darker than typical female Mallards and would sport greenish-yellow 
bills.  

Nick Komar
Fort Collins CO

From: coloradodip...@aol.com 
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 5:53 PM
To: cobirds@googlegroups.com 
Subject: [cobirds] Mallard hybrid

Hi all:

Ted Floyd wrote:

female plumage" overall (no ruddy suffusion on breast, uppertail coverts 
uncurled and concolor with body, etc.)
uniform yellow bill, a hair duller than the yellow on the bill of nearby 
Mallards

fairly bright/light purplish speculum, with little or no white fringing

bland dusky face with thin dark supercilium and thin dark cap; facial features 
not very well defined
prominent gray scapulars, basically identical to those of nearby Mallards

rectrices notably paler than ground color of body

As to the sex of the bird, I'm not positive. Based on the preceding, I'd say 
female. Plus, the bird copulated with a male Mallard. But Mallards are, hmm, 
well, this is a PG listserv... So I'm just not sure; and, at one point, I 
thought I glimpsed some green flecking behind the eye, but, despite extensive 
trying, I was unable to reproduce that result. (Now this may sound weird, but 
how would you distinguish a female American Black Duck x Mallard from a male 
Mottled Duck x Mallard?)


My response is that females of neither American Black Duck nor Mallard have 
yellow bills.  Additionally, because yellow bill is a trait of males in the 
entire large, brown, dabbling-duck complex (see Colorado Birds 46:304-305), I 
have a hard time imagining that this bird is a female.  However, the purple 
speculum with little or no white certainly suggests American Black Duck as at 
least one of the parents.  My biggest question is how pale was the tail?  If 
just pale, then could it be a young male American Black Duck with a typically 
pale youngster-type tail?

Enjoy,

Tony Leukering
Villas, NJ
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[cobirds] Mallard hybrid

[coloradodipper]

Hi all:

Ted Floyd wrote:

female plumage" overall (no ruddy suffusion on breast, uppertail coverts 
uncurled and concolor with body, etc.)

uniform yellow bill, a hair duller than the yellow on the bill of nearby 
Mallards

fairly bright/light purplish speculum, with little or no white fringing

bland dusky face with thin dark supercilium and thin dark cap; facial features 
not very well defined

prominent gray scapulars, basically identical to those of nearby Mallards

rectrices notably paler than ground color of body

As to the sex of the bird, I'm not positive. Based on the preceding, I'd say 
female. Plus, the bird copulated with a male Mallard. But Mallards are, hmm, 
well, this is a PG listserv... So I'm just not sure; and, at one point, I 
thought I glimpsed some green flecking behind the eye, but, despite extensive 
trying, I was unable to reproduce that result. (Now this may sound weird, but 
how would you distinguish a female American Black Duck x Mallard from a male 
Mottled Duck x Mallard?)


My response is that females of neither American Black Duck nor Mallard have 
yellow bills.  Additionally, because yellow bill is a trait of males in the 
entire large, brown, dabbling-duck complex (see Colorado Birds 46:304-305), I 
have a hard time imagining that this bird is a female.  However, the purple 
speculum with little or no white certainly suggests American Black Duck as at 
least one of the parents.  My biggest question is how pale was the tail?  If 
just pale, then could it be a young male American Black Duck with a typically 
pale youngster-type tail?

Enjoy,

Tony Leukering
Villas, NJ

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[cobirds] Recall: spam question

[Mitchell, Christina]

Mitchell, Christina would like to recall the message, "spam question".

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[cobirds] RE: spam question

[Mitchell, Christina]

The address (cobirds@googlegroups.com) is 
already in my personal Contacts.  And not all of the messages from that group 
get caught by Ironport-it's been about 1 or 2 each day.  Seems odd.

Nothing urgent, just a bit of a pain to have to get on VPN to release them each 
day.

From: Bell, Cathy
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 3:54 PM
To: Mitchell, Christina
Subject: RE: spam question

Yes, you can add that address to your Contacts in Outlook and that should do 
the trick. If you've already done that, let me know.

From: Mitchell, Christina
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 3:17 PM
To: Bell, Cathy
Subject: spam question

Over the past couple of weeks, a number of e-mails from a Colorado birding 
listserve (perfectly legitimate) are ending up in the Ironport spam queue 
(although not all of them).  Is there something I could do to keep these out of 
the spam filter?

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[cobirds] Pueblo Reservoir was good this afternoon 12/28

[Brandon K. Percival]

I only looked from the southeast side of Pueblo Reservoir and the South Shore 
Marina at Pueblo Reservoir this afternoon.  I hadn't been out to the Reservoir 
since Dec 15th, and there are a lot more birds than there was back on that 
date.  Highlights today follow:

Red-throated Loon - 1
Pacific Loon - 1
Common Loon - 3
Tundra Swan - 3 adults
Long-tailed Duck - 1 female
Glaucous Gull - 1 1st year
Great Black-backed Gull - 1 adult

Lesser Black-backed Gull - at least 5 (various ages)
Thayer's Gull - 1 juvenile
lots of grebes of 5 species (1 Clark's, no Red-necked)
lots of mergansers (lots of Commons, some Red-breasted and a few Hooded)

lots of goldeneye (only Commons that could find)
Lots of other birds.


Brandon Percival
Pueblo West, CO

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[cobirds] Redpolls @ Discovery Museum, Larimer

[Elaine Coley]

Hi All,
As of yesterday morning there were Redpolls coming to the Discovery Museum's backyard feeders in Ft. Collins.  They can be viewed from INSIDE the back glass doors  or windows.  While Jim Thompson and I were there a Brown Creeper flew erratically into the back door and took quite a few minutes to revive itself  on the cement outside the door and did finally fly off.
FYI, Wildbirds Unlimited in Ft. Collins supplied the feeders and food and Discovery gal takes care of them.  Above and Beyond...!
Happy New Birding Year
Elaine Coley, Loveland


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[cobirds] Northern Shrike

[Nicolle Martin]

A Northern Shrike visited my Willow a few minutes ago, but left before I could 
snap a picture.  

Nicolle Martin 
Littleton, CO (NW OF Chatfield Res.)

Sent from my iPad

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[cobirds] Rosy-Finches - Red Rocks - Jeffco

[mike]

Hi All,

Since we had a skiff of snow last night, I put some seed out early ( I  
was back home by 8 am) and had approximately 10 Rosy-Finches show up  
at the feeders behind the Red Rocks Trading Post.  There were two  
Black Rosy-Finches (one adult & one immature) among the small flock of  
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches.  The Rosy Finches used the ground below the  
platform feeder, the ground under the lower apple tree, the rock wall  
on the south, and also flew up to the favorite perch on the cliffs to  
the south.  I did not see the Golden-crowned Sparrow in the short time  
I was there, but that doesn't mean the bird isn't around.


Mike Henwood
Morrison
Jeffco

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[cobirds] Redpolls - Pitkin County

[Dick Filby]

Hi all

 

Firstly: Season's Greetings and best wishes for a healthy and
wildlife-filled 2013

 

Great to be back in Colorado - on+off for the next 5 months.. hope to enjoy
your company soon at some great spot or another..

Also, I'm very much looking forward to joining the Aspen CBC this coming
Sunday, Dec 30th and hope that it will be the best turnout ever - can I
encourage anyone to come??

 

Now to the subject line..  Redpolls!

 

Along with my nephew from Michigan, Jacob, I visited the Aspen Village
trailer park yesterday (by highway 82, just SE of Snowmass Canyon),
following up on reports of a Common Redpoll there earlier in December.
Initially we staked out the feeder that it had been seen at previously, but
gave up after 20minutes, having seen lots of House Sparrows, House Finches,
Western Scrub-Jays, a Steller's Jay and a couple of Juncos but nothing else.

 

As we drove slowly away however, I spotted some birds in a large cottonwood
at the opposite end of the park, and bingo - there were around 15 Common
Redpolls along with some American Goldfinches.  

 

Good job they were in the Aspen CBC count circle, and being seen on Thursday
before count day on Sunday, they just fall into "count-week"!

 

"Down-valley" there's been a Northern Shrike (juv) around the Dakotas
sub-division in Carbondale, and 2-3 Rough-legged Hawks in the vicinity of
Catherine Store (Carbondale - Garfield Counnty)

 

Good birding all!

 

Dick Filby

Carbondale, CO

 

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[cobirds] Colorado Rare Bird Alert for Friday, December 28, 2012

[Joyce Takamine]

 Compiler:Joyce Takamine
Date:  December 28, 2012
email: rba AT cfobirds.org
phone:303-659-8750

This is the Colorado Rare Bird Alert for Friday, December 28, 2012,
sponsored by Denver Field Ornithologists and the Rocky Mountain Bird
Observatory.  If you are phoning in a message, you can skip the recording
by pressing the star key (*) on your phone at any time.  Please leave your
name, phone number, detailed directions, including county and dates for
each sighting.  It would be helpful if you would spell your last name.

Highlight species include:  (* denotes that there is new information on
this species in this report)

BRANT (Larimer, Morgan)
TUNDRA SWAN (*Boulder, La Plata, Mesa, Montezuma, Weld)
White-winged Scoter (Denver)
Long-tailed Duck (Denver)
Red-necked Grebe (*Douglas/Jefferson)
MEW GULL (Boulder)
Thayer's Gull (Boulder, *Broomfield, Pueblo)
ICELAND GULL (*Broomfield, Douglas/Jefferson)
Lesser Black-backed Gull (Boulder, *Broomfield, Denver, Douglas/Jefferson,
Pueblo)
Glaucous Gull (Boulder, *Broomfield)
White-winged Dove (Pueblo)
ACORN WOODPECKER (El Paso)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (Logan)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Pueblo)
Chihuahuan Raven (Pueblo)
Winter Wren (*Kit Carson)
Curve-billed Thrasher (Pueblo)
Lapland Longspur (*Kit Carson)
Palm Warbler (El Paso)
Field Sparrow (Phillips)
Swamp Sparrow (Pueblo, Weld)
White-throated Sparrow (Delta, Pueblo)
Harris's Sparrow (Pueblo)
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW (*Jefferson)
Northern Cardinal (Boulder, Logan)
EASTERN MEADOWLARK (*Kit Carson)
Rusty Blackbird (Pueblo)
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch (*Jefferson)
Black Rosy-Finch (Jefferson
Common Redpoll (*Kit Carson, Larimer)
HOARY REDPOLL (Larimer)

Boulder County:
--Floyd reported on December 23 that the Northern Cardinal continues in
Hawthorn Gulch.
--At Valmont Reservoir on December 26, Floyd reported 15 Tundra Swans, 1 ad
MEW GULL, 5 Thayer's Gulls (2 ad, 3 1-st cyc), 2 1-cyc Lesser Black-backed
Gulls, and 1-2 ad Glaucous Gulls.
At Valmont Reservoir on December 27, Mlodinow reported 14 Tundra Swans.

Broomfield County:
--4 Thayer's Gulls were reported by Nick Moore at Anthem Ranch in
Broomfield on December 23.
On December 27, Mlodinow reported 2 Thayer's Gulls and Lesser Black-backed
Gull and Schmoker reported Glaucous Gull and 2nd cyc ICELAND GULL at Anthem
Ranch  Anthem Ranch is S of Hwy 7 and Lowell.
--At Sienna Pond (Corner of Lowell & Sheridan) Mlodinow reported Glaucous
Gull and Schmoker reported Lesser Black-backed Gull on December 27.

Delta County:
--A tan morph White-throated Sparrow was reported by Boswell at Confluence
Park in Delta on December 23 and December 24.  It was between the path and
Gunnison River in first 100 yards from trailhead parking.

Denver County:
--At Marston Reservoir on December 24, Tina Jones reported 2 1-st winter
White-winged Scoters, 1 Long-tailed Duck and 1 ad Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Douglas/Jefferson Counties:
--2 ICELAND GULLS (1 ad, 1 1-st cyc) and an ad Lesser Black-backed Gull
were reported by Walbek at Chatfield SP on the north side ice shelf on
December 21.  On December 22, Sanders reported Lesser Black-backed Gull and
Red-necked Grebe at the north marina at Chatfield.  On December 23, Walbek
reported that the ad ICELAND GULL flew to the ice shelf at Chatfield.  On
December 25, Mlodinow reported that the Red-necked Grebe was near the north
marina.  On December 26, Parsons reported the Red-necked Grebe continues at
Chatfield.  On December 27, Roller reported that Chatfield is completely
iced over and thus no Red-necked Grebe.

El Paso County:
--A western Palm Warbler was found by Surano on December 12 on the Colorado
College campus.  The Palm Warbler was last reported by Wolf on the S side
of Barnes Science Hall on December 20.  The Palm Warbler was reported by
Roeder W of the S entrance to Barnes Science center on December 25.
--A f ACORN WOODPECKER was reported by Marty Wolf on the Colorado Springs
CBC in the North Cheyenne canyon area on December 15.  It was on the N side
of W Cheyenne Blvd and W from 21st/Cresta.  On December 21 Kathy Miller
reported the ACORN WOODPECKER
at Willow Circle and Cheyenne Blvd.

Jefferson County:
--Henwood reported on November 26 that the GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW
continuues at Red Rocks Trading Post.  On December 24, Henwood reported
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW but no Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch at Red Rocks Trading
Post but Gingrich reported GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW and 3+ Gray-crowned
Rosy-Finch later on December 24.  On December 25, Norm Lewis reported
GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW, Gray-crowned and Black Rosy-Finches at Red Rocks
Trading Post.  On December 27, Henwood reported GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW and
3 Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches at Red Rocks Trading Post.

Kit Carson County:
--On the Flager CBC on December 27, Kaempfer reported Common Redpoll,
Winter Wren, EASTERN MEADOWLARK, and over 22000 Lapland Longspurs.

Larimer County:
--On December 12, Lutomski reported a BRANT on a small lake just north of
Lake Loveland and west of

[cobirds] Update on Sandhill Crane conservation in Colorado

[Ted Floyd]

Hello, Birders.

Here's some information on crane conservation in Colorado, in particular as the 
matter relates to a proposal to allow hunting of Sandhill Cranes in Colorado.

First, here's an end of the year press release from the newly formed Colorado 
Crane Conservation Coalition:

http://www.steamboatlibrary.org/sites/default/files/Support.pdf

Second, here's coverage in "Steamboat Today":

http://www.steamboattoday.com/news/2012/jun/07/proposal-crane-hunting-northwest-colorado-killed/

(You owe it yourself to read all the Boulder-bashing, down in the comments 
section. E.g., "Tom, Your emotional outbursts would seem to fit in better in a 
place like Boulder.")

Happy New Year, all.

Ted Floyd
tedfloy...@hotmail.com
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado   

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[cobirds] Field Trip Announcement: Gullapalooza to be held February 2, 2013

[Ted Floyd]

Hello, Birders.

The annual gull-watching extravaganza known as Gullapalooza will be held in 
2013 on Saturday, February 2nd. We will begin at noon at the usual meeting 
place: at the headquarters to Xcel Energy's Valmont Station, off 63rd Street in 
Boulder, Boulder County. More details to come, but I thought I'd get the 
advance word out.

Learn more about Gullapalooza here:

http://blog.aba.org/2011/01/227.html

Speaking of Xcel Energy's Valmont Station, I was out there yesterday afternoon, 
Thursday, Dec. 27th, with Ted Cooper, Norm Lewis, and Jeremy Winick. As Steve 
Mlodinow has noted, there are now two (2) American White Pelicans at 
Valmont--one of which seems to be a bit under the weather. The 15 Tundra Swans 
were accounted for, and they were doing their darnedest to keep up with the 
racket of the thousands of geese. Speaking of geese, there were even more of 
them yesterday than on Wednesday. I didn't do the Mlodinow thing and diligently 
analyze the DNA of all 5,500+ birds, but I did notice a single adult Snow 
Goose, and a large one at that.

We saw 7 Ruddy Ducks out there, not present or overlooked by my party the day 
before. Ruddy Duck is actually quite uncommon--"rare," I'd say--in Boulder 
County in winter.

Gulls. We saw one adult Glaucous Gull that seemed smallish to us, and I wonder 
if it's the same bird seen earlier in the day in Broomfield County by Bill 
Schmoker and Steve. It was an odd bird, with the heft of a "normal" (read: big) 
Glaucous Gull; thus, not necessarily the small subspecies barrovianus (which 
tends to be slim and dainty, approaching Iceland Gull in build). This one, 
though, had the typical build for a Glaucous Gull, but it was simply smallish 
overall. Whatever it was, it was *not* one of the 1 or 2 Glaucous Gulls seen 
the day before at Valmont. Keeping straight with the gulls can be hard. On that 
note, we saw the same number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls (2) as the day 
before, but an adult was new. However, the adult Mew Gull that we saw seemed to 
be the same as the day before. No "Thiceland" Gulls yesterday, but 4 
more-or-less "normal" Thayer's. And 3 Californias, as opposed to 2 the day 
before. My head is spinning. Numbers of both Ring-billed and Herring gulls 
seemed a bit up from the day before--not much of a surprise, given the 
continued cold weather.

Ted Floyd
tedfloy...@hotmail.com
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado

  

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