I had the good fortune to watch this pair doing their business today.
(As a long aside, I think that from a birder's perspective, only Oklahoma's Scissor-tailed Flycatcher out does Colorado's Lark Bunting on the state-bird front. New Mexico's Greater Roadrunner and Utah's California Gull (what attitude to not only have a larus for a state bird, but one named after a different state!!!) are close 3rds and 4ths, and notice that these states are all contiguous in their spurning of American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, various bluebirds and meadowlarks.) (Have I just kicked off the agitated thread of the year?)
On the east side of the road (CO 67) there is a useful and safe pull out a couple of hundred yards south of the dead tree where the Scissor-tailed pair are nesting. If you are coming to see the birds from the north (which probably 98% of us are) drive past the tree to the Hardscrabble Point of Interest pull out on the right, turn around and go back to the small pull out on the east side of the road at the crest of the hill south of the big dead nest tree. (But be careful when you go back on the highway.) The Scissor-tailed pair are far, far too busy intercepting and harassing every raven (I thought the one there today may have been Chihuahuan), Turkey Vulture and Red-tailed Hawk that makes the mistake of entering their no-fly zone to worry about your presence from this spot. They will put on quite a spectacular display if you give them 15 minutes or so. I enjoyed them greatly with Doug Kibbe, Jeff Dawson and Christina this morning.
After the flycatchers, we continued into Wetmore where I gave the other three bad directions on finding Band-tailed Pigeons. If you want to look for them, try along CR 389, not CR 395. I had a couple near the creek crossing at CR 388 about 2 miles south of the intersection CO 67 and CO96.
Finally, I went on down to pick up the Pueblo Mountain Park Environmental Station Acorn Woodpeckers. I know this is the birding equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel, but where else can you get Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Band-tailed Pigeon and Acorn Woodpecker in one day?
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
From: cobirds@googlegroups.com [mailto:cobirds@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Deb Evers
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2014 9:32 AM
To: cobirds@googlegroups.com
Subject: [cobirds] Re: Confirmed nesting of SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER pair south of Florence
Excellent point! Hopefully we birders can use this as an opportunity to remind or to gently educate others on the importance of leaving all nesting birds alone!
Deb Evers
Loveland, CO
On Friday, July 25, 2014 11:46:15 PM UTC-6, SeEtta wrote:
I drove out tonight to do some more observation of the SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHERS south of Florence as it just seemed to me that their defense of that location from the Am Crows was an indication of current/future nesting. I was rewarded a little after 8 pm with a view of a SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER sitting on a small nest (previously undocumented and located on the north side of the tree they have been observed in) and then watching the female get off the nest and be replaced by the male. I have two photos (taken from inside my car) that I have uploaded to my Birds and Nature blog showing one of them sitting on the nest and of the male perched just above this nest that I took close to dark--not the greatest but they show the birds on/above the nest. I want to add it is far more important to not disturb this rare nesting pair than to get great photos so all photographers need to be cognizant of their impacts and be careful to not impair the success of this nesting.
SeEtta Moss
Canon City
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