If Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins is any indicator, now is the time to check hackberry trees for small birds including migrants. Yesterday the fat nymphs of gall-making psyllids within leaf galls and adults in the act of emerging to overwinter in bark were being preyed upon by Wilson's warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets, black-capped chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches, chipping sparrows, bushtits, a red-naped sapsucker and house finches. This phenomenon doesn't last long in any one locale (week to ten days?). If the stars align and eastern migrants are going thru when the psyllids are available, hackberry is the site.
The pic shows a chickadee extracting blistergall psyllid (Pachypsylla celtidivesicula) nymphs from a leaf it has pulled from its branch attachment to stand on and wail at. The other pic shows four blistergalls from which a chickadee has precisely removed the contents.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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