Both yesterday's and today's checklists for Fort Collins' Grandview Cemetery included a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker but they were in two widely separate areas and may well represent two different individuals. I suspect one is the adult male present since early November and the one today might well be a young male. I did not see today's very well but it was in an American Elm near the Trolley House on Mountain Avenue just east of the cemetery entrance. I got one poor look and photo before it flew off toward the softball complex se of the Trolley House. Its throat did not appear to be solid red like an adult but looked more like the mottled red and white throat typical of juvenile male yellow-bellies at this time of year.
The sapsucker seen yesterday was originally in an Austrian Pine just out on City Park Nine Golf Course about midway along Grandview Cemetery's south boundary road (just east of the big gray winter portapotty). It flew from the forked pine, which has historically been used by sapsuckers, into the giant cottonwood just to the east, which appears to be the same tree where Fawn Simonds found it on the recent (December 14th) FC CBC. I think this bird ranges over the west part of the golf course, with fresh sap well grids seen on several mature pines in that area. It is VERY wary/sneaky, only gave its distinctive mew call a few times.
Yesterday I had a small group of 7-8 Red Crossbills in the tops of spruce near the center of the cemetery. They have been scarce in the cemetery for more than a year now. I believe they were Type 2s. The partial wingbars on a couple of the females had me going for a time. As reported previously, White-winged Crossbills have appeared at Grandview about every 13 years (considering the period 1974 to the present). The fun episode when they were last here and nested was over the winter of 2009 into spring 2010.
Other birds of note today:
*Big flock of Bushtits
*Robins and a solitaire eating Common Buckthorn fruits in the tree and on the ground
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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