Well, it's been colder than a grave-digger's you know what, as they say. But always something of interest in every piece of outdoors on any day.
The bubblers at Sheldon Lake maintain open patches of water despite the recent frigid temps. Mallards and both "white-cheeked geese" predominate but there have been a few Common Mergansers, a few American Wigeons, an occasional Common Goldeneye and Ring-billed Gulls. Once I saw a young Snow Goose with the other geese. I believe E. J. Raynor saw a few Northern Shovelers during recent weeks. Every so often a Bald Eagle checks things out. Today an American Crow pecked at a fish on the ice.
I have seen the young male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker only once in 2021 but I would wager it's somewhere in the neighborhood. Most likely it is spending most of its time on City Park 9 s and e of the cemetery where there are dozens of mature pine trees. I have walked out there at least 3 times and not figured out his haunts but as everybody knows, if sapsuckers are inactive and silent, they are exceptionally easy to miss. The one time I did catch up with it, it was high in deciduous trees (almost all American Elms), as if not seeking sap but rather feeding on European Elm Scale insects.
E. J., who lives just east of the cemetery, has been reporting two Spotted Towhees along the ditch behind his town home, also coming to his feeder. I have seen one of these birds once in 2021, in a nicely landscaped yard on the e side of Frey Avenue midway between Mountain and Laporte Avenues.
The red-phase Eastern Screech-Owl is as fickle as ever and rarely shows itself. Many, many people know where it appears when it appears, so I am not going to put any more pressure on it by providing a detailed location. eBird is great but gps coordinates are increasingly mis-used by over-zealous photographers and listers, IMO.
Most of the bird activity in the vicinity of the cemetery has been at feeders in private yards in the block immediately e of the entrance. Lots of Pine Siskins, House Finches, House Sparrows, Northern Flickers, juncos, Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches, American Robins and Townsend's Solitaire, Blue Jay, occasional band of Bushtits, Downy Woodpecker or two.
In the cemetery proper at least 5 Brown Creepers survive by gleaning morsels from tree bark for hours on end. That they can find enough calories to maintain themselves is a marvel.
Since CSU built its infamous new on-campus football stadium, Common Ravens think its a rock outcrop and have become resident birds in Fort Collins. I see them occasionally flying over the cemetery, or joining in with crows to curse the big owls.
The Great Horned Owls appear to be going to nest in Section E. That is where they pulled off a partially successful second nesting last summer after failing for the 3rd consecutive year in their traditional area of Section H.
The second-most interesting thing observed today was a female Hairy Woodpecker working on Banded Elm Bark Beetle-infested branches of American Elm near the southeast corner of the Trolley Building 100 yards east of the cemetery entrance along Mountain Avenue.
The most surprising/interesting thing today involved two Mountain Chickadees cleaning out a hole in an American Elm along Grandview Avenue, as if prepping to nest. I suppose they just could be making a better place to roost during this cold snap but it would seem to require too much effort for that. I have never known Mountain Chickadees to nest in Fort Collins. I have suspected a mixed pair of Mountain and Black-capped Chickadees nested a few summers ago, and Steve Martin documented a mixed pair at his place at a similar low elevation near Wellington many years ago.
No crossbills of either kind that I have seen this winter.
Silver maples will be worth watching over the next month as Fox Squirrels and many of the small birds drink dilute maple syrup oozing from natural bark cracks and wounds the squirrels purposefully create.
May (only three months away) Nature entertain and warm your core.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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