Site 1) At Grandview Cemetery in Fort Collins I am mostly concentrating on monitoring the Broad-tailed Hummingbird situation. Here is the activity list from yesterday:
Nest in the southwest corner (sw corner of Section 1) is done, presumably fledging two young. I was gone for a couple weeks when all this happened. Historically this corner hosts the earliest nest in the cemetery and provides the most hope/evidence that Broad-tails could easily be double-brooded, but without banding or somehow marking the females, proof is nigh on impossible. Just seems too suspicious that hummers could be nesting in April and August and some of that not involve females having two broods in the same season.
Nest in southeastern corner (se corner of Section 9) built interestingly and abnormally atop live needles in a section being deluged daily by extra sprinkler water to establish new grass, is missing one baby (jostled out of the low-hanging nest by a golf cart or cemetery crew mower/cart, tracks right under the nest in the mud?) but the solo baby is being fed and just might make it to fledging (despite getting very wet every time the female is gone when the sprinkler comes on).
Perfect nest in the northwest corner of Section 1 that was never used for some reason is now torn apart. A female was heard in the general vicinity and perhaps she (same female or a different individual?) utilized material from the unused nest as an easy resource.
Fourth nest discovered in the process of being built in the sw corner of Section 9 (just west of the active nest with one baby). Think this nest was begun on the day of the visit. Amazingly the female was alternating loads of spider web and Scot pine bud caps as building material. Will go back today to check on progress.
All four of the above nests are in spruce: three in Colorado Blue, one in Engelmann.
Site 2): Larimer County Road 5 east of Rawhide Power Plant. Mostly I wanted to see if any White-lined Sphinx caterpillars were evident crossing the road and what birds were eating them. None seen. Also wanted to see what shrikes were impaling on the wires. Great majority of items were Redshank Grasshoppers (Xanthippus sp.). Saw one red-winged grasshopper species and a few Robust Camel Crickets (big, reddish brown). Found one shrike nest in a flowering Four-winged Saltbush (Atriplex sp.). Very quick check revealed one egg. Presumably this is Brood #2 in progress. Other bird observations included Vesper Sparrow (on CR5 at the rr crossing that goes to the Rawhide Plant), a few Grasshopper Sparrows, gobs of Lark Buntings and Horned Larks. No longspurs but I did not listen all that hard in the traditional areas.
Site 3): Checked Weld CR14 east of US85 where Amber reported Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Andy reported Upland Sandpiper. I saw neither but did see Sage Thrasher, lots of Grasshopper Sparrows, a few Brewer's Sparrows, no Cassin's Sparrows, and a fledged family of Loggerhead Shrikes (at the HQ for Shortgrass Steppe Research Building on north side of CR114). The young shrikes were learning the ropes of finding food on their own while within the safety blanket of having a parent bring an occasional morsel. One youngster caught and ate a Redshank Grasshopper. The parent brought in a black Field Cricket and fed it to one lucky fledgling.
Site 4: CR37 north of CR114 was quite the display of why Loggerhead Shrikes long ago acquired the local name of "butcher bird". I have seen a lot of impaling by shrikes but this seemed a bit over the top. Within a couple hundred yards either way of a presumed nest tree (shrike seen perched high in the top of it) were no less than 75 objects which consisted of: Redshank Grasshoppers, Robust Camel Crickets, young Shorthorned Lizards (4), and birds. The birds included a headless Brewer's Sparrow, a Brewer's Sparrow head (not all that close to the headless carcass), a young Western Meadowlark (sign this shrike up for dead-lifting at the next Summer Bird Olympic Games?), and an assortment of young birds I could not identify, some essentially naked individuals obviously taken out of nests. The Brewer's Sparrow head was particularly macabre. Was all this a male showing his provisional prowess and advertising for a Brood #2 mate? Was this territorial intimidation of other species that might mistakenly think they want to nest near this shrike? Whatever, it did NOT seem like simple caching for the purpose of future meals.
All in all, an awesome day in the field and I felt very lucky to have seen all this drama.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
Nest in the southwest corner (sw corner of Section 1) is done, presumably fledging two young. I was gone for a couple weeks when all this happened. Historically this corner hosts the earliest nest in the cemetery and provides the most hope/evidence that Broad-tails could easily be double-brooded, but without banding or somehow marking the females, proof is nigh on impossible. Just seems too suspicious that hummers could be nesting in April and August and some of that not involve females having two broods in the same season.
Nest in southeastern corner (se corner of Section 9) built interestingly and abnormally atop live needles in a section being deluged daily by extra sprinkler water to establish new grass, is missing one baby (jostled out of the low-hanging nest by a golf cart or cemetery crew mower/cart, tracks right under the nest in the mud?) but the solo baby is being fed and just might make it to fledging (despite getting very wet every time the female is gone when the sprinkler comes on).
Perfect nest in the northwest corner of Section 1 that was never used for some reason is now torn apart. A female was heard in the general vicinity and perhaps she (same female or a different individual?) utilized material from the unused nest as an easy resource.
Fourth nest discovered in the process of being built in the sw corner of Section 9 (just west of the active nest with one baby). Think this nest was begun on the day of the visit. Amazingly the female was alternating loads of spider web and Scot pine bud caps as building material. Will go back today to check on progress.
All four of the above nests are in spruce: three in Colorado Blue, one in Engelmann.
Site 2): Larimer County Road 5 east of Rawhide Power Plant. Mostly I wanted to see if any White-lined Sphinx caterpillars were evident crossing the road and what birds were eating them. None seen. Also wanted to see what shrikes were impaling on the wires. Great majority of items were Redshank Grasshoppers (Xanthippus sp.). Saw one red-winged grasshopper species and a few Robust Camel Crickets (big, reddish brown). Found one shrike nest in a flowering Four-winged Saltbush (Atriplex sp.). Very quick check revealed one egg. Presumably this is Brood #2 in progress. Other bird observations included Vesper Sparrow (on CR5 at the rr crossing that goes to the Rawhide Plant), a few Grasshopper Sparrows, gobs of Lark Buntings and Horned Larks. No longspurs but I did not listen all that hard in the traditional areas.
Site 3): Checked Weld CR14 east of US85 where Amber reported Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Andy reported Upland Sandpiper. I saw neither but did see Sage Thrasher, lots of Grasshopper Sparrows, a few Brewer's Sparrows, no Cassin's Sparrows, and a fledged family of Loggerhead Shrikes (at the HQ for Shortgrass Steppe Research Building on north side of CR114). The young shrikes were learning the ropes of finding food on their own while within the safety blanket of having a parent bring an occasional morsel. One youngster caught and ate a Redshank Grasshopper. The parent brought in a black Field Cricket and fed it to one lucky fledgling.
Site 4: CR37 north of CR114 was quite the display of why Loggerhead Shrikes long ago acquired the local name of "butcher bird". I have seen a lot of impaling by shrikes but this seemed a bit over the top. Within a couple hundred yards either way of a presumed nest tree (shrike seen perched high in the top of it) were no less than 75 objects which consisted of: Redshank Grasshoppers, Robust Camel Crickets, young Shorthorned Lizards (4), and birds. The birds included a headless Brewer's Sparrow, a Brewer's Sparrow head (not all that close to the headless carcass), a young Western Meadowlark (sign this shrike up for dead-lifting at the next Summer Bird Olympic Games?), and an assortment of young birds I could not identify, some essentially naked individuals obviously taken out of nests. The Brewer's Sparrow head was particularly macabre. Was all this a male showing his provisional prowess and advertising for a Brood #2 mate? Was this territorial intimidation of other species that might mistakenly think they want to nest near this shrike? Whatever, it did NOT seem like simple caching for the purpose of future meals.
All in all, an awesome day in the field and I felt very lucky to have seen all this drama.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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