Birding on nasty spring days can be glorious, albeit physically uncomfortable. Watching birds cope is always a reminder of just how good they are at survival.
On a tip from Josh Bruening (thank you) regarding a Gray Flycatcher seen at Grandview Cemetery earlier in the day during a snow squall, I headed that way in late afternoon. It was still snowing until about 5, when things moderated a bit and I actually saw a few slivers of blue and the sun briefly. Here are the highlights of a two-hour visit that only involved the southeastern corner (Section 9) near the pumphouse.
Gray Flycatcher - like most of the other birds, it hunted the mini-refuges under the big spruce trees. With regularity, it spied an insect prey item (ants?), dashed to the ground and quickly retreated to a dead lower branch, always on the move, usually giving itself away with "whit" call notes. It worked all of Section 9 and occasionally got into Sections 7 and 8.
Long-tailed, mostly gray flycatcher with long bi-colored bill, yellow lower mandible with black tip, whitish outer tail feathers, even eyering and, oh yeah, it wagged its tail properly (downward motion first, unlike upward-first other empids).
Yellow-rumped Warblers (at least 15 of them) were mostly feeding atop the snow under hackberry trees on adult hackberry gall-making psyllids. Apparently the egg-laying of these little insects was interrupted by the storm and they washed off branches and swelling buds above in good numbers. On the white snow, these dark insects were easy pickings. Many of the warblers of both types plus intergrades allowed close approach. Awesome episode.
Orange-crowned Warbler (FOY for me) mostly at the base of a smallish spruce (aphids?) and up in a budding elms/hackberry (usually looking in the area under branches (see photo)).
Hermit Thrush (2, FOY at the cemetery). On the ground under spruce, suspiciously close to one group of warblers getting psyllids under a hackberry. Uncommonly bold, as many birds can be when the rigors of food procurement trump (sorry) normal caution.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1 heard only).
Broad-tailed Hummingbird (1 male heard repeatedly in the same area). Did not see it, could not figure out what it could have been foraging on unless it was wet dandelion pollen or maybe Ohio buckeye tree flowers. Pine sap would have been available at some of the sapwells made by the recently departed Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers but the bird was not near those areas. Days like the last two would elevate the value of feeders beyond just facilitating our observation of the birds.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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