Today I woke up to a mini-fallout in my yard with lots of yellow-rumped warblers and robins, plus 2 orange-crowned warblers, 1 Townsend's warbler, 3 blue-gray gnatcatchers, 1 yellow warbler, 1 western tanager, 1 green-tailed towhee. I only got to watch them for a few minutes. There were probably others but they all suddenly left in a big whoosh.
Yesterday was a four-jay-day here. Scrub, blue, steller's and a single pinyon jay at my feeders. To top it off, a Clark's Nutcracker also visited my yard yesterday, not seen here since early June, which was also unusual.
I've seen several posts eluding to late hummingbirds, but my feeders have never been this busy all year as they are right now, with as many as 15 or more here on friday and saturday. Today there seem to be fewer, but still at least 6-8. The make-up has been mostly young broad-taileds, but within the last week I have seen individual young/female rufous, black-chinned and calliope.
Old news: Its been a while since I've reported anything on cobirds lately, but it hasn't been for a lack of interesting birds around this fall. Its been a decent migration overall, starting off way back in July with good numbers of Bullock's orioles passing through (8-10/day). They were all but gone by early august, when an olive-sided flycatcher stopped briefly to flycatch in my yard, followed by large numbers (like 6+ at a time) of western tanagers, especially in late august. Black-head grosbeak numbers were also good this year, with 3-4 in the yard on any given day, until late august. A single Evening Grosbeak was heard labor day weekend. A hairy woodpecker has been around off and on since late august, as has a red-breasted nuthatch - or perhaps these have been different birds over time. they are still seen regularly. Other migrants this fall include a macgillivray's warbler, white-crowned sparrow, and a spectacular swallow flight (barn, cliff and violet-green) on labor day. I have not seen/heard many crossbills lately, in constrast to reports in town. Spotted Towhee's have been coming through in good numbers, with mostly juveniles starting about 2 weeks ago, and now mostly adult males (6-7 in the yard). Oddly enough, i have yet to detect a Wilson's warbler in the yard this fall.
good birding,
Arvind Panjabi
5700' feet, Larimer County, CO, 3 miles west of Fort Collins
On the north slope of Milner Mtn
Mountain mahogany shrubland and grassland
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