I went over to GC on this lovely day to check on the Red Crossbill nesting situation and saw quite a bit of spring activity.
The crossbills were where I have seen them for the last 16 days or so, that is, the ne corner of Section 1. At least for a time, four other Red Crossbills were in the area, also. The nesting pair is very quiet for long periods of time, presumably when she is visiting and/or sitting at the nest. When feeding on conifer seeds or coming down to drink, they tend to make at least short series of notes, which sound similar to flight calls. Occasionally the male sings. On one occasion they came to the ground to eat snow/drink water at the quickly disappearing patches of slush along the road e of the nest tree. Today will be the end of water near the nest and the end of good photo opportunities, at least until we get another snow and the cemetery crew plows the road snow in piles. I saw one male crossbill eating the opening flower buds of American Elm (see below), and in the top of a Colorado Blue Spruce with lots of cones along the west edge of Section 1 over by Taft Hill Road. The aforementioned old robin nest in the Norway Maple in the intersection ne of the nest where I saw the pair recycling cup liner material (looked like whitish dryer lint) is completely gone. I saw siskins tearing material out of this nest, also, and House Finches are yet another species nesting in the immediate area. Nothing is left of the robin nest, not even sticks and mud, and I saw no remnants of the nest on the ground.
Other indications of breeding witnessed today:
*Blue Jays murmuring in the interior of a spruce crown, touching beaks (did not see food exchange but that might have happened).
*Red-tailed Hawks have their traditional nest pretty well fixed-up for another season in the southeastern corner, in a spruce. Saw them soaring together the other day, grasping eachother's talons and tumbling a short distance (again, might have been food exchange but I didn't see anything changing hands).
*Pine Siskins were very vocal over the last two weeks, today they were very quiet. I suspect eggs are laid and they are in stealth mode.
*A little raucous pod of 4 Townsend's Solitaires engaged in something significant, either courtship or agonistic squabbling, something. Looked more like courtship, maybe two or three males trying to convince a female to pick one of them and head to the mountains?
*Bushtits seem to be in pairs, rather than squadrons of 15-20.
*Big black-headed male robins are paired up with females, feeding for worms together, first song phrases uttered from time to time.
*Great Horned Owl female on the nest and watch-dog male always somewhere nearby.
*Juncos singing their brains out.
*Red-breasted Nuthatches busy cleaning nest holes.
*Brown Creepers singing their warblerlike song from time to time.
*The other day Dave Wade and I saw a pair of Cooper's Hawk fly by, one following the other, both doing that slower, exaggerated courtship flight they do with upper leg feathers flared out like white, padded football pants.
*Eurasian Collared-Doves singing (but they do that and each other all year long, nothing unique to early spring).
*European Starlings refurbishing branch/trunk cavities.
*And recently, but not today, I have seen both Downy Woodpeckers and White-breasted Nuthatches cleaning out cavities.
At nearby Sheldon Lake in City Park there was one Common Goldeneye, three Lesser Scaup, five American Wigeon and the FOY up north that I've seen Double-crested Cormorant. The crippled Cackling Goose persists. Ice all gone. Dogs on parade as they take their cell-phone-mesmerized owners for walks. The latter sniff every "like" and tweet, lift their legs occasionally, keep checking their phones, look pathetic.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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