I also had a red-winged blackbird with a deformed beak--extremely long upper mandible. It was eating just fine and defending its order in the feeder. Haven't seen it a couple of weeks...maybe it has moved on to the Mead area. I live one mile west of Severance.
Jessie Meschievitz
Windsor CO
On Sun, Feb 14, 2021 at 1:20 AM <cobirds@googlegroups.com> wrote:
DAVID A LEATHERMAN <daleatherman@msn.com>: Feb 14 02:12AM
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.
[cid:1f3115b6-3699-4cf9-9b04-9ef0c38b426a]
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.
[cid:b740e95f-d40d-4190-8e74-1e7277e69168]
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.
[cid:a777c8b5-432f-4ef4-91f9-4b010ee2fd5e]
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
Bryan Guarente <bryan.guarente@gmail.com>: Feb 13 09:21AM -0700
COBirders,
It has been an interesting three weeks in the eastern provinces of Canada.
Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia have had an influx of Redwings
<https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/redwing> (*Turdus iliacus*; the
European species, not the blackbirds we know and love). There have been 6
different instances of Redwings spread across those three under-birded
provinces (eBird map of Redwings in North America
<https://ebird.org/map/redwin?neg=true&env.minX=-76.05414250153214&env.minY=38.24833580700198&env.maxX=-42.304142501532134&env.maxY=52.12793756350506&zh=true&gp=true&ev=Z&mr=1-12&bmo=1&emo=12&yr=all>).
Ornithologically, this is significant. Meteorologically, this is also
significant. The Polar Vortex has been mentioned in many circles recently
in relation to the cold we are feeling Friday through the weekend. There
was a strong wobble in the polar vortex recently that led to a strongly
different pattern of winds over the North Atlantic Ocean. This has caused
a long period where there have been relatively consistent *easterly* winds
from England/Iceland to the northeast reaches of North America. This is
backwards from the normal pattern of westerly (from west to east) winds we
expect to see in the Mid-latitudes.
In all of the following web links, make sure you remember that this is on a
globe, so you will need to orient yourself appropriately to the
latitude/longitude lines to understand the winds.
Here's an example of the backwards pattern:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/01/27/1100Z/wind/isobaric/850hPa/orthographic=-29.90,55.54,835
Sighting #1 showed up in New Brunswick for a two hour period then
disappeared (1/21).
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/01/20/2000Z/wind/isobaric/850hPa/orthographic=-30.97,52.95,835
.
Sighting #2: showed up in Newfoundland on 1/25 in St John's:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/01/24/1900Z/wind/isobaric/850hPa/orthographic=-30.97,52.95,835
Sighting #3: showed up in Newfoundland on 1/29 in Stephensville:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/01/28/2100Z/wind/isobaric/850hPa/orthographic=-30.97,52.95,835
This one makes meteorological sense, but it isn't a strong case. I am
guessing this one was already local and showed up to where someone reported
it.
Sighting #4: showed up in Maine on 2/1:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/01/31/2100Z/wind/isobaric/850hPa/orthographic=-30.97,52.95,835.
This one is another case of possible dispersion to somewhere that it was
reported at a later date than when it probably showed up. But we are still
in the same type of weather pattern with winds out of Iceland/England which
would dictate some movements like this if a bird leaves those
island nations.
Sighting #5: showed up in Wolfville, Nova Scotia on 2/3:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/02/02/1900Z/wind/isobaric/850hPa/orthographic=-30.97,52.95,835.
This is a more typical winter pattern for the North Atlantic and NE North
America. This seems to be a wandering of one of the birds already in North
America in my mind. The wind pattern was NOT conducive for more Redwings
to be coming to this side of the pond.
Sighting #6 and #7: showed up on the same day (2/12) in Crystal Crescent
Beach, Nova Scotia and in Crow Neck Beach, Nova Scotia:
https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/02/12/0500Z/wind/isobaric/850hPa/orthographic=-30.97,52.95,835
And as a weird side note, there has also been a Redwing that showed up in
Victoria, British Columbia yesterday (2/12) as well. There are two
subspecies of Redwing (*T.i.iliacus and T.i.coburni*). If these birds are
identified to subspecies, it would be interesting to see if the British
Columbia bird is of the *coburni *subspecies as that one breeds in Iceland
and winters in far western Europe as opposed to the mainland Eurasia
subspecies *T. i. iliacus*. Either subspecies is possible in the
US/Canada, but the *coburni *subspecies would be exceptional in British
Columbia and would lead one to believe that this bird likely crossed the
entirety of the Atlantic, THEN all of Canada to reach the B.C. coast. It
isn't that likely from the wind pattern, but possible. It is much more
likely that the B.C. bird is of the other subspecies and likely came from
Asia rather than Europe.
Hopefully this was fun arm-chair birding while it is cold out. If there
are any questions about this, please ask. This is a fun time to explore
old records and dig in on winter vagrants.
Good birding to you,
Bryan
Bryan Guarente
Meteorologist/Instructional Designer
UCAR/The COMET Program
Boulder, CO
Robert Raker <rlraker@comcast.net>: Feb 13 03:03PM -0800
Thanks Bryan! Fascinating. Wonder what cool birds are taking a rest in SE
Greenland.
Rob Raker
Lakewood, CO
On Saturday, February 13, 2021 at 9:22:00 AM UTC-7 Bryan Guarente wrote:
Adrian Lakin <adrianlakin1@gmail.com>: Feb 13 10:20AM -0800
Hi,
I just had a Red-winged Blackbird at my feeders with an incredibly long
upper bill. It was feeding OK, so it must not be impacting it too much. It
must be the season for deformed bills what with the Pine Warbler at
Chatfield a couple months ago.
Here's a couple pictures...
[image: IMG_6078_1.jpg]
[image: IMG_6082_1.jpg]
Adrian Lakin,
Mead, CO
Curtis Frankenfeld <curtis.frankenfeld@gmail.com>: Feb 13 11:36AM -0700
I had a Pygmy Nuthatch with a similar bill deformity late last year. In doing a little research, I came across an article in All About Birds discussing bill deformities.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/ive-seen-a-bird-with-an-overgrown-or-otherwise-deformed-bill-what-is-wrong-with-it/ <https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/ive-seen-a-bird-with-an-overgrown-or-otherwise-deformed-bill-what-is-wrong-with-it/>
At the bottom of the article, there is a site to report birds with these deformities. It takes a few minutes and there its a method to provide photos of your bird.
Curt
Jenny Shelton <sheltoncontractlab@gmail.com>: Feb 13 01:16PM -0700
Adrian,
I'm so glad you posted this! I had one at the neighborhood feeders near Jackson Lake SP last week and thought I was losing my mind for a minute! This one also seemed to be eating just fine .
Jenny
Sent from my iPhone
"mvjo...@gmail.com" <mvjohnski@gmail.com>: Feb 13 07:23AM -0800
Pretty awesome.....never would have imagined it!
On Wednesday, February 3, 2021 at 7:27:13 PM UTC-7 sebastian patti wrote:
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