Center Green Drive warbler situation
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DAVID A LEATHERMAN
Nov 19, 2013, 11:48:43 AM11/19/13
to COBIRDS
As Ira reported, the only warbler seen yesterday at the sacred Austrian Pine at 3005 Center Green Drive was a Northern Parula (appears to be a female, with just a hint of orange on the chest). To the best of my knowledge in chatting with the other birders present on and off Monday the 18th, it was seen around 11am and again at noon. It did not make a showing after that. Neither the Bay-breasted nor the Pine Warblers were seen at this site on the 18th.
I did an extensive walk-about of the general neighborhood and there are probably in excess of 75 big Austrian Pines in the nearby office park, including the Residence Inn complex and other office buildings to the east and north/northwest of the "hot" tree, and around buildings south of this area on the south side of Valmont, pretty much all which have some degree of aphid infestation. The easiest way to gauge aphid presence, at least on the kind of warm days we've been having, is to note yellowjacket wasp activity (which have been referred to as "bees" in one of the posts). The wasps are grazing on the sticky, sugary "honeydew" excreted by the aphids and which make the needles of aphid-infested trees "shimmer" in the sunlight, as if sprayed with water or a clear glaze.
This is all to say that I hope folks continue to monitor/check this site, and that such hunting not be restricted to the tree where the amazing warblers seen to date have frequented. As eTed recently noted in one of his posts about a bird reported as missing and then showing up later, when we think a bird is gone, there are two other possibilities - it's still there and we missed it, or its dead. Hopefully the recent warbler subjects of our adoration chose a 70-degreeish day in Colorado in the latter half of November to make progress south, nothing more, nothing less.
In the general vicinity of the tree, the only birds I saw of note besides the Northern Parula was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet to the nw (thicket w of the buildings along the rr track), and a Yellow-rumped Warbler south of Valmont.
I understand Alex Brown has seen a Pine Warbler recently at the East Campus of CU (s of 30th/Boulder). This was the site where 2 Pine Warblers and an eastern race Palm Warbler overwintered in 1992-1993 in the pines, oaks, dumpsters, etc. Just for old times' sake, I went down there, bought 20 minutes' worth of time in the Visitor Parking lot (50 cents) and did a quick perusal. Didn't see anything, but that probably means nothing, given the speed checking that many pines in that amount of time requires.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
I did an extensive walk-about of the general neighborhood and there are probably in excess of 75 big Austrian Pines in the nearby office park, including the Residence Inn complex and other office buildings to the east and north/northwest of the "hot" tree, and around buildings south of this area on the south side of Valmont, pretty much all which have some degree of aphid infestation. The easiest way to gauge aphid presence, at least on the kind of warm days we've been having, is to note yellowjacket wasp activity (which have been referred to as "bees" in one of the posts). The wasps are grazing on the sticky, sugary "honeydew" excreted by the aphids and which make the needles of aphid-infested trees "shimmer" in the sunlight, as if sprayed with water or a clear glaze.
This is all to say that I hope folks continue to monitor/check this site, and that such hunting not be restricted to the tree where the amazing warblers seen to date have frequented. As eTed recently noted in one of his posts about a bird reported as missing and then showing up later, when we think a bird is gone, there are two other possibilities - it's still there and we missed it, or its dead. Hopefully the recent warbler subjects of our adoration chose a 70-degreeish day in Colorado in the latter half of November to make progress south, nothing more, nothing less.
In the general vicinity of the tree, the only birds I saw of note besides the Northern Parula was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet to the nw (thicket w of the buildings along the rr track), and a Yellow-rumped Warbler south of Valmont.
I understand Alex Brown has seen a Pine Warbler recently at the East Campus of CU (s of 30th/Boulder). This was the site where 2 Pine Warblers and an eastern race Palm Warbler overwintered in 1992-1993 in the pines, oaks, dumpsters, etc. Just for old times' sake, I went down there, bought 20 minutes' worth of time in the Visitor Parking lot (50 cents) and did a quick perusal. Didn't see anything, but that probably means nothing, given the speed checking that many pines in that amount of time requires.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
Cathy Sheeter
Nov 19, 2013, 3:16:11 PM11/19/13
to cob...@googlegroups.com
I just stopped by there and the tree was birdless. I did a 20 minute walk around looking at some of the other pines in the area and found nothing of note.
Cathy Sheeter
Bouldering
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