Went back again today for a 4+ hour visit. Was joined for a time by Joe Mammoser and Dave Steingraeber. Every day is different, which is what I like about patch birding. Today's highlights and changes since yesterday:
No big flock of red crossbills. But there was one crossbill that we heard a couple times and never got a good look at that we think quite possibly was a white-winged. Just one of those tantalizing birds that got away. Maybe this will be a winter for white-wings at Grandview. Last time we know they were around was summer of 2010. The average over the last 43 years has been every 13 years but in the world of crossbills and sporadic cone crops, that means nothing, probably.
Hammond's Flycatcher, but a different individual than yesterday. Yesterday's individual had white wingbars. This one had brownish. Silent. In the lower crowns of conifers near the entry bridge.
Lark Sparrow in with big flock of Chipping Sparrows moving around the roads and turf among the headstones.
Clay-colored Sparrow (ditto the description for Lark Sparrow)
Hairy Woodpecker, mountain race, working spruce along the south edge. This species should be doing very well these days due to the widespread spruce beetle epidemic in the High Country. I would expect the excess to spill over to the foothills and plains this winter. Will be see another major benefactor of this bark beetle outbreak, American 3-Toed Woodpecker, down low this winter? If they can show up in southwestern KA like they did many years ago, they could show up in Glenmere Park in Greeley, Roxborough, or Pueblo City Park.
Great Horned Owl (2 together in spruce in Section E in the north part, NOT in the champ honeylocust in Section 8 where I thought we would start seeing them).
Wilson's Warbler (1)
Think the Pygmy Nuthatches we had for a few weeks are gone.
Still a few Broad-tailed Hummingbirds evident, mostly by their gentle "tic...tic...tic..." contact call up in the crowns.
Dominant birds of late have been Lesser Goldfinches (at least 3 families fledging/begging/calling constantly) and Red-breasted Nuthatches and Black-capped Chickadees caching spruce seeds.
Chimney Swift migrating south heard way high overhead.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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