Phenology Update 14 April 2013
We have a new bird that showed up last week at the feeders. The bright yellow bill caught my attention as did the stripes on the head. Turns out to be a White-crowned Sparrow. We usually don’t see many sparrows here, so this one has been rather unusual.
Reading up on them, they normally hang out by willows – none of which we have on the property, but just over the ridge in almost any direction is a creek full of them. Perhaps the spring snows has brought him to the feeders. Another source said they often crowd out Juncos from their nesting spots – and we have lots of juncos and places for them to nest.
The other day while cleaning up the bird feeder leavings from the ground below the deck, I came back from hauling yet another bushel full to the dumpster to find nearly 30 Juncos milling about in the freshly exposed dirt. We have lots of Juncos – many will stay and nest here under the juniper bushes or brush piles we have yet to dispose of. I’ve been watching them pair up and chase each other. And picking up trash that blew in from the renters next door in our valley, I had the chance to sit quietly and watch a pair check out the appropriateness of a juniper bush down there. A piece of trash was in there, so I quietly moved in, removed the piece and stepped back. They hardly even moved.
And, for the past few months, Mike and I (and the dogs) would hear an odd screeching noise. Just once. In various places in the house. Not a critter in the house, because there wasn’t any pitter patter of tiny feet on the other side of a wall or ceiling. It came at all times of the day and night. We debated what it might be – a bat? We listened to all sorts of bat sounds on the internet and that wasn’t it.
Then I checked the owl sounds. That was it. Which one, we’re not sure, but it was an alarm call. Only once – so just enough time for you to get ready to really pay attention again. Of course, now that we’ve identified the odd sound, we’ve not heard it again. It’s not surprising to hear an owl who’s found a good food source. The rabbits, birds and now chipmunks that are out and about would be just right for an owl. I’ve checked around the property for pellets, and found none…yet.
The Woodpeckers are drumming away each morning and pairs have been seen going from one tree to the other, checking it out, doing some test drills. And on that walk to pick up trash, I noticed a tree that’s not doing well. Turns out to be absolutely filled with neat, tidy rows of holes – sapsucker holes. I imagine we’ll lose that one this year, but will continue to watch for the sapsuckers on it.
Also saw the first robins back – splashing in a puddle in the driveway left by one of the spring snows. There were three of them. Hard to get photos of them as this batch isn’t habituated to humans. They’re skittish and spook even when standing far back from the front door where I took this photo with a zoom lens (photo’s also cropped). As soon as I lowered the lens, they bolted. sigh.
I love spring snows simply because they’re sort of magical – like this morning – you wake to a world covered in an inch of white and by afternoon, it’s soaked into the soil. Each inch like this leaves behind it a touch more green. It reminds me of some sort of mixed media effect that only shows after the initial application has disappeared.
We saw a bull elk not far from the house the other day, already starting to show the nubs of this year’s antlers. Mike is stopped some mornings to let the herd of 300-400 cross the road in front of him. It actually happened twice last week. They were on one of the old ranches in the area as we headed to dinner one night – many of them are starting to look a bit scruffy as they begin to shed their winter coats. The deer around here are doing the same.
I need to get out and check on the first plants around here again – after living here for nearly 20 years, I’ve found where the first flowers are usually found, which aspen trees send out their catkins first, etc. I really need to add in a map of the area with the locations on it to add to the phenology notebook.
Get outside to see what’s happening in your neck of the woods.
Rosy Finches Return
On Sunday, the 24th, the Gray-crowned Rosy Finches returned in the same numbers as before – around 100-125. The flock had split up, but then group after group descended on us for over an hour, much to the disgust of the other regulars who hung in the trees nearby, watching the crowd.
Part of the flock lifted and headed in the direction of another known feeder in the area. Those that stayed shared pretty well with the Evening grosbeaks, chickadees & nuthatches, as well as with the Downy woodpeckers. This continued for the bulk of the time before the rest came back in.
In checking up on these guys, it seems they’ll be heading north soon to nest in Canada and Alaska, so maybe they’re hitting all the feeders to load up for the journey. I’ve seen one today at the feeder, along with many (well 7 or 8) Red Crossbills, (who still have not shown up with fledgelings yet, but I suspect they are not far) and the other usual suspects at the feeder. But seeing one Rosy Finch means the rest are near here somewhere. Hope to see them crowding around again – you might, too, if you keep half an eye on our webcam.
Red Crossbill Pair is Back
About this time last year, we started to see a pair of Red Crossbills show up at the feeders regularly. They’re back again. Just the pair, sitting quietly to one side of the central feeder, politely eating away. They’ve been there for at least 15 minutes. I first saw a couple of males the day before I left for Cody back in mid-February. The pair(s) we have now – and perhaps the same pair(s) as last year – has been seen occasionally last week, and now at least once a day if not twice. My guess is that they’ve nested again and we very well could see babies showing up soon. Here’s my favorite photo sequence from last year of the pair – only four days later they brought the babies. 
Gray-capped Rosy-finches Visit
Yesterday while working on projects (that have somewhat collided on me) , a bird landed on the railing of the deck just in front of me. A ‘new to me’ bird, but I was fairly certain it was a Rosy Finch of some sort. The projects could wait for this. I looked out at the feeding station and there were tons of them! When they saw my movement they lifted to sit in a tree not far away. Not 100% sure of what I was seeing, I headed upstairs to get a better look and take a photo.
That’s the ‘second favorite tree’ of birds that visit us. It had mistletoe which causes the twisting of the branches into ‘witches brooms’ but a porcupine that visited here awhile back ate a good chunk of the mistletoe, that left the branches a bit bare and a bit more healthy – that was in late 2004 (had to check the scrapbook pages I did then about it – you can see them here and here). The bare branches make this a favorite tree for many birds.
Then I headed back to the main floor because they were all returning to the feeders and I knew I could get a few more shots to ID them better.
Then a delivery truck drove in the driveway to drop off a package and spooked them. They rose and there were MANY more on the ground I didn’t know were there – the deck shielding them from my view. At least 50, likely about 70. As they flew I couldn’t get them all in the shot with the lens I had on.
They did come back a second time and there were even more – at least 75 and perhaps even 100. This group swooped back and forth a few times in a stunning display. Not sure if they’ll return today, but it would be fun if they did!
Friday Phenology 17-29 Nov 2012
“‘May all your hours be sunny’ is another way of saying ‘May you perish in the drought.’”
~Edwin Way Teale from his book, A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm
It’s dry. This last week we’ve seen humidity some days in the single digits. It’s warm. Most days lately reach well into the 50s. I cannot stress enough how much I despise brown winters. As the sun rises lower into the sky each day, it becomes more and more uncomfortable to be outside and facing south. Blinds are pulled. On the days we’ve had clouds, the blinds are open and my eyes relax.
The volunteer pansies are still blooming in the window box beside the window where I sit. Blooms freeze overnight, but invariably by afternoon, more appear. I probably need to give them a bit of water along with the rest of the garden that’s been neglected for too long.
A couple of weeks ago, we had a regular morning flock of about 20-30 Evening Grosbeaks show up on a daily basis. That number has at least doubled. While outside this morning, the sound of them cracking open the black oil sunflower seeds and letting the shells drop to the ground sounded almost like rain. The Mountain Chickadees and Pygmy Nuthatches are definitely getting comfortable with us. While filling the bird bath with water this morning, one of the Mountain Chickadees kept flying in, landing, and flying off, just inches from me. The Pygmy Nuthatches almost need to be brushed off before I can fill the feeders at times. All of them, though, ascend in a group to the safety of the tree near the feeders at the first audible ‘quark’ from a Raven.
We also had a visit from a lone Red-Winged Blackbird. Normally they don’t come over the ridge that separates our road from the next one which has a stream. I haven’t really checked the stream water level recently, but I imagine it’s down. Perhaps he just joined the Grosbeaks to see where they went. He did visit the birdbath as well. Kind of unusual for them to still be hanging around up here at the end of November (photo taken the 27th through double paned windows, so not the greatest, but enough to ID and document).
In my last Friday Phenology report I mentioned about how the Evening Grosebeaks eat the spruce worms. Between the Grosbeaks, Chickadees and Nuthatches, I’ve noticed when it gets warm (and the feeders have been drained for the day), they move to the trees and mainly work on the branch tips. Mainly spruces and firs – the ones that were absolutely covered in spruce moths this last summer. An infected tree usually will have a few tips that grow curled in the spring.
But the Blue Spruce next to the house has many branch tips that look like this:
So do the Douglas Fir trees:
Obviously they are finding food there. It will be interesting to see how those branches grow next spring. I image without the needles, if we do get the week or two of deep freeze in January or February, those brand buds may not have the protection they need to make it through.
The trail cam this week was fairly active – showing the deer are still in rut.
Trail Cam 23-29 Nov 2012 from Janet White on Vimeo.
Get out there and learn and explore. Watch your world and look into the things you find interesting. You don’t want to end up not knowing enough like this. It’s just amazing how the deer cross our road in about the same spot all the time without a deer crossing sign!
Friday Phenology 3-9 Nov 2012
It’s been a bit since I’ve done a Friday Phenology post, and yesterday while on a walk with the dogs, I realized why. We’re in between. It’s like a big waiting period. Waiting for snow. One of the many reasons we live out here is because we love snow. I can handle the deepest of white winters with ease, but give me a brown one with glaringly sunny days and I honestly get grumpy. While moving some slash from trees that had to have branches cut, I noticed one of the aspen branches actually had a bit of fuzz peeking out from one of the leaf buds – has it really been that warm? I brought that one in to practice sketching – still working on the composition of that one, but there’s a drawing in that branch.
Each day on our walks – might as well do something with it so very warm – the dogs and I are watched by a raven or two. I’m guessing it’s a pair that has their nest in the area. How they know that we’re out and about is beyond me. But they’re always patrolling. Their “quarks” are a common sound. If we’re where they expect us, they fly over once, but if we’re in an unusual location, they circle lower for a closer look. Curious Corvids.
And speaking of Corvids, we changed the bird seed in the feeders to just the black oil sunflower seeds – previously we had the nut and berry mix that also had the sunflower seeds. After this switch, the Gray Jays, Steller’s Jays and Clark’s Nutcrackers spent a couple of days emptying the one feeder in search of peanuts, tossing all the seed on the ground, much to the Junco’s delight. Then they left. Didn’t see them for most of this last week. But then yesterday they were back, accepting the change, and politely filling their gullets and no longer spreading seed on the ground to pick out nuts.
This was the first Evening Grosbeak I had seen around the house in years – taken 3 March 2008
The change in seed also brought in more Evening Grosbeaks and Pine Siskins. Evening Grosbeaks are the bird of the year, and there was a recent article over on the ABA Blog about them that said they feed on the spruce worms. That makes perfect sense since the spruce bud worms were thriving this year. If they eat them as well, I’m happy to keep buying black oil sunflower seeds to keep them in the area. The Birds of Colorado book says they also have been seen gorging themselves so much on aphids that the juice stained the feathers around their beaks. We’ve had them here in the area for three years now, successfully nesting each year and it’s good to know they’re also protecting the trees and plants. Nature has a way of fixing things to keep a balance.
The ABA Blog post also mentioned that “they” are now thinking the dead Lodgepole forest is due to human activity. ???? Maybe lack of activity – the forest service hasn’t done control burns as much as they did in the past. People talk about ‘bringing it back to what it used to be’ – well, when exactly? When the native Americans would set fires to burn out their enemy’s territory fairly regularly? When the settlers had nearly clearcut many areas? You can’t ‘go back’ – you can only move forward. A more solid and logical report we saw said what we were thinking, that the drought years have caused a lot of stress on the trees which allows the beetles to thrive. Without much control burning, we’ve watched the beetle kill march it’s way south for about a decade or more now. And the officials are just now noticing and wanting to ‘fix’ the problem? All I can say is they’re a little late to the party.
The trail cam this week picked up deer, rabbits and a fox. At some point I want to compile the times the deer are seen and see how regular they are or aren’t. But for now, here’s this week’s capture slideshow:
Trail Cam 1-8 Nov 2012 from Janet White on Vimeo.
The Field Journaling .com trail cam captures for the week.
Finally, a bit of blatent self-promotion: the Field Journaling notebooks (Craft Version) are in my shop over at Etsy. They make the perfect home for phenology notes, nature journals, or to house scrapbooking December Daily or other mini-album projects. I certainly appreciate any support to help keep things rolling here.
Friday Phenology – Week 42
Well, it’s not Friday, but this is the report that should have gone up last Friday…
I’m now checking the trail cam each Thursday simply due to simplifying my routines more. I had great expectations for the trail cam stash this week, but when I opened it up, it said it was on Set #4. That meant only 15 images – or it was only triggered three times. On it I found two sets (10 photos) of Cat, the cat and one single image of a fox exiting stage left. The four remaining images of this set were blank. Well, no need to create a video for you – here’s the only wildlife shot:
The birds, though, are at the feeders pretty much constantly. The larger birds come first – competing for the peanuts – one Steller’s Jay in particular will hop around looking at the feeder until I come out and fill it with something. Other mornings if I get to it before I see birds, a Clark’s Nutcracker must be close enough to see, as it’s there almost the moment I shut the door. Through the week I’ve seen:
- Steller’s Jays
- Clark’s Nutcrackers
- Pygmy Nuthatches
- Mountain Chickadee
- Hairy Woodpeckers
- Downy Woodpeckers
- Cassin’s Finches
- Dark Eyed Juncos (I think all varieties are represented now)
- Evening Grosbeaks
- Red Breasted Nuthatches
- White Breasted Nuthatches
- Pine Siskins
- Black Capped Chickadees
- Gray Jays
That’s pretty much the same list that made up the daily visitors here most every day last winter. Oh, and an occasional squirrel or two – it seems the squirrel population has dropped in the past few weeks – maybe the young dispersed? Or were someone’s dinner. I’m still seeing rabbits even though the trail cam didn’t pick up any this week.
The aspen trees are, for all intensive purposes, ready for winter. Maybe 1-2% of the trees in the area have leaves still – those are the ones usually in some small protected pocket. The mornings are chilly enough now for a fire to take off that chill, but it needs to go out early or we cook. Even without a fire at all yesterday (time to get the chimney swept), we had the window open for the first part of last night since the daytime temps reached into the upper 60s and we forgot to open it up earlier.
There’s a slight – very slight – chance for snow this next week for us and we’re both looking forward to any and all we get.
Who ended up nesting around here?
Killdeer successfully nested at West Thumb Geyser Basin 11 July 2012
Everyone is bringing out their babies!
While we were in Yellowstone we noticed the Killdeer had their babies out (do you consider them fledgelings when they can walk out of the nest as soon as they dry after hatching?). We saw three young ones at West Thumb Geyser Basin – and two with their parents near Madison Junction campground. Fun to watch those tiny babies with the thick sturdy legs.
When we returned from our latest trip to Yellowstone, everyone had their babies out and showing them the ropes, and I assume starting to form the winter flock with those that stay year round. That gives us a good idea of who all nested around here, and of course, I took notes:
- Evening Grosbeaks were highly successful nesters again this year and hordes of babies are around.
- Cordilleran Flycatchers
- American Robins
- Pygmy Nuthatches – the White Breasted Nuthatches are seen hanging around with them often, though I’ve not seen them interacting directly.
- Downy Woodpeckers
- Wild Turkeys
- Steller’s Jay (only see one fledgeling at a time – but possibly there are two this year)
- Clark’s Nutcracker
- Black Capped Chickadees
- Mountain Chickadees
- Dark Eyed Juncos
- Pine Siskens
- Magpies
- Cassin’s Finch (only saw one group one day)
- Violet Green Swallow
- White Breasted Nuthatches (not ours, unless they nested again elsewhere)
- and a little brown bird I haven’t yet identified.
I’ve not taken many moth photos lately – as most are gone by the time there’s enough light 0ut – I really should haul out the flash before daylight sometime this week. But the birds are thick there in the morning to take advantage of the breakfast buffet the shop light provides them.
And there have been the teenage squirrels – that I’ve been ‘training.’
You see, one of them sit in the tree just outside the window by my desk and scolds. For. Hours. Well, maybe not hours, but definitely half hour stretches are not uncommon. I’ve had it and started squirting him with the squirt bottle filled with water. If he’s quiet, he doesn’t get squirted.
Yesterday, he brought a buddy teenage squirrel with him and they sat and scolded in unison just out of the squirt bottle’s reach. Fine. I have a garden hose that reaches anywhere in the tree. A couple of sessions on a hot day yesterday seemed to get the message through. They came and were quiet and didn’t get wet. They scolded and they got wet.
Today all is quiet – so far. They still run along the railing in front of the window and pause to look at me through the window, but that’s fine. Just don’t ‘bark’ continuously for no reason. The dogs don’t get away with that, and hopefully the squirrels will learn the same.
Friday Phenology – Week 29
The monsoon moisture came in around the 4th of July as we often see here. While we don’t get them every day and we’re back to the pattern of clouds starting to form in the morning as temperatures rise into the 80′s and occasionally the low 90′s, and then rain moves in sometime mid to late afternoon cooling it off to the 50′s and then sunshine again in the evening. The cool in the evenings is refreshing after all the hot dry weather, and makes for some mighty sweet tomatoes in the garden. Some of the storms have been pretty intense, but as they move out, they do give a pretty spectacular show.
The babies are out and about this week in full force. Two neighbors came to me to ask about a strange sound they heard. It was a loud ‘mewing’ but it wasn’t a cat. It’s a bear cub. The momma bear puts the cub or cubs in a tree while she goes out and takes care of other business and they will cry. It’s good to know what that sound is because it means the momma bear is probably near.
The tree squirrels are zipping about at an amazingly fast pace, and one almost always pauses to look in the windows here. Some of the spruce trees are dropping pine cones – not sure if they produced too many to support or if the spruce worms have stressed them too much, but the squirrels cart off the ripe pine cones heavy with sap.
Two deer fawns crossed the road with their mother as I came around a corner near our home, and I almost had to come to a stop while one tried to figure out what to do. – it went the wrong way and the mother was visibly concerned. She waited for me to pass and then started to head over to collect her wayward child. The elk were out in a field on the way to town and a few calves were seen mixed in there as well.
Before we left on vacation, we hardly saw a bird. But upon returning, they were thick. A neighbor confirmed that they had all returned just a day or two ago, nagging her to put out some food as well. It seems like this is the start of the formation of the winter flock that will visit our feeders throughout the rest of the year.
I also had to drive very slowly by a batch of Pygmy Nuthatches fledgelings who were playing in a mud puddle not paying a lick of attention to the car creeping up near them. I’ve also seen fledgelings of Downy Woodpeckers, Mountain Chickadees, Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Siskens and other year round birds as well as some migrators. An odd pair of fledgelings has shown up together – a Steller’s Jay and Clark’s Nutcracker. They are obviously hanging out together and are a hoot to watch. The Steller’s Jay has figured out how to sit on the edge of the shop roof and lean over to pick off moths. The Clark’s Nutcracker can’t quite get his larger body to do that, so instead, settles for the ones on the tree, ground, or at ground level on the shop. The hundreds of moths I saw before leaving on vacation are quickly eaten each morning.
And speaking of winter, there was a report of first snow seen on the Ten Mile Range near Breckenridge. Plus, today I saw the first bloom of the purple asters on our property. They are flowers I associate with the end of summer as they will continue to bloom until frost.
2012 Friday Phenology – Week 23
My apologies for the delay in getting this report out. My only reason is that summer is here, and with that comes much busy-ness.
Summer IS here – heralded in this week with pollen from the Ponderosa Pine trees. Wednesday was the first day we noticed that all too familiar layer of yellow dust on the cars. The bird bath in the garden has a ring of yellow on it as well. And the heat and wind have been with us much of the week. That heat builds some rather amazing clouds right around us, and then moves them out east. What we see is amazingly gorgeous, but we also know that it means someone out there is getting pounded with that storm.
And that was the case this week with the hail and tremendous downpours that destroyed so much in Parker and Colorado Springs. I didn’t bring out the camera for the mammantus clouds, though they were gorgeous and many people in the Springs got to see them. They say they’re rare, but actually up here we see them quite often on the back ends of storms. I really should start making notes when we see them, but usually it’s when someone is really getting hammered from the storm. At sunset, they can be quite spectacular.
Mammantus Clouds at Sunset, July 2009
Birds
The main story this week was about the failure of the nest with the White Breasted Nuthatches. I now only occasionally hear a White Breasted Nuthatch around, so I think that pair may have gone their separate ways. The Violet-Green Swallows, though, are around often and house hunting. They have been eying the nest box we have on the west side of the house as well as the box the Nuthatches were in. They come in groups of 2, 4 or 6, all careening around in large circles, hovering in front of nest boxes and occasionally landing on top of them.
The bird box on the west side of the house has never been used, but it was put there after we sealed up the hole to a nest some tree swallows used a few years back that gave them access to the space above the upstairs bathroom. We’d come home from a June vacation to find them already nesting there, so let them finish. It was interesting to hear the baby birds hopping around on the other side of the drywall in the ceiling, but that really didn’t need to continue. The tree swallows looked at the replacement space and rejected it.
On a drive to town the other day, I saw what I thought were 3 ravens out in a cow pasture, walking along the ground. But on the trip back home, they had walked closer to the road and I could see they were three Turkey Vultures. I’m not sure if they walked all the way over, but I’ve seen them there, close to Divide quite a few times lately.
One evening this week, we sat out by the garden to end our day and while chatting, we started to talk about the various birds we hear around here. There’s been on twittering bird I haven’t been able to place, so I got out the iPad and started playing some bird songs from All About Birds. It turns out that it was a Slate Colored Dark Eyed Junco – who responded instantly to the call on the iPad. I played it again and it swooped down toward the source of the sound, but was obviously confused. Behind us a Band Tailed Pigeon was at the top of a pine tree cooing away, and we nailed down a few others as well that both of us have heard.
Mike had a chance to see a couple of Great Blue Herons out at one of the more remote reservoirs in the area when he was there for work this past week. That remote location would certainly be a desirable nesting area. He said they would fly around and land at the very top of a pine tree – which we’ve seen before, but it’s just an odd sight.
Deer
The deer have been caught on the trail cam a few times this week, but still no fawns. Instead, we have a doe that really looks quite uncomfortable at this point. They should be starting to drop fawns fairly soon.
Botanicals
With the heat we’ve had this week which seemed to trigger the pollen from the pine trees, and the lack of moisture in this area has started to dry up a lot of the plants. The weeds in the dog yard are down right crunchy to walk on. The wild iris are blooming everywhere there’s enough water for them and the showy locoweed is just starting on a decline. One batch I saw along the roadside was a deep, dark magenta. Most are white, to lavender to pink, but this deep magenta was the first I’ve seen so dark. Really lovely.
I’m hoping we can get out this week to a spot we visited last summer not far from here where it’s much more wet and check to see what all is blooming there.
Insects
The wasps and flies as well as the moths and butterflies have absolutely exploded in numbers this week. The first horse flies were bothering the dogs as they enjoyed the cool breeze on the deck which had Taylor snapping at them as they flew around. She actually catches quite a few that way. Rhad, on the other hand, just prefers to head inside.
The day the White Breasted Nuthatches stopped feeding the babies was the day I noticed my first Sphinx Moth of the year, or I’m assuming it’s a Sphinx Moth simply because of the size. It was also on that day that I could resume taking moth photos in the mornings. With the babies growing, they were taking all the moths as quickly as they could each morning and I just gave up for the time being. I timed them one afternoon and they were feeding on average about every 4 minutes, and more often in the mornings, so the wall under the shop light was emptied out quickly. I still need to carve out some time to work on the moth photos taken this week.
I also noticed last weekend the rolled aspen leaves on the trees. Each contained something that was turning into a moth or butterfly. By the end of the week, they dried and fell to the ground, and all of them are empty. If I can find one, I may stick it in a jar to see what emerges. Also, the tent worms are still in their tents on the aspens.
Spruce worms are dangling mid air most everywhere around here. They drop down on thin silvery threads, then climb back up – and all the spruce trees seem to have the tips of the branches wrapped in threads. They are particularly thick this year.
So what’s happening in your neck of the woods? Take a few notes, snap a few photos. If you post to your blog, share a link! I love seeing what’s happening in other corners of this amazing world.
