Yesterday morning my friend, Scott, arrived with the hope we could catch and band the rare Harris’s Sparrow that continues to feed around the yard. We also wanted to band a White-winged Junco, a bird that breeds in South Dakota and winters here in small numbers.
The White-winged is the largest subspecies of Junco. The size difference can be hard to discern unless seen in close proximity to the other forms that winter here, including the Slate-colored, Oregon, Oregon pink-sided, and Gray-headed Junco. The Gray-headed is the only subspecies to remain and breed in CO.
The White-winged is lighter gray than the Slate-colored, it shows more white in the outer tail feathers in flight, and it’s distinguished by two white wing bars.
Both birds fed close to the traps but didn’t enter this time. We did band several Mountain and Black-capped Chickadees, and one of the Steller’s Jays. Also encountered was a Steller’s that we banded here in 2018.
While we were outside, the first American Dipper of the year appeared on the stream. Not one, but three individuals that sang and played territorial games around the dipper nest box by the cabin. There are a few open pools of water where the stream is otherwise covered with 2-3 feet of snow. At 6 a.m. this morning, a dipper was singing its bright song from the stream.
With so much snow this year, a heavy runoff could delay their nesting into late May or early June.
Awesome photos! You ARE "The Birdman of PV"! So cool they trust you to handle them. I have noticed an up-tick of Bird activity.
Looking forward to spring! (the ICE has been a pain this year! Never seen it so abundant in my 46 winters in JT,).
The dippers have returned to Jamestown- about a week ago when when openings began appearing on the creek. Until then, I’d only seen them on the lower stretches.
Screech owl made it’s usual visit last month, waking me up at 2am.
Steve, sooner than later might be better to hang that box, once May hits the birds are getting busy and run off makes the creek rise higher than my duck boots AND my comfort level!
Michelle, I will e-mail you so we can make arrangements to meet.
Originally, I placed six dipper nest boxes on the South St. Vrain and three on the Middle St. Vrain. Only two boxes remain on the South. Of the more that 30 dipper boxes I have mounted on streams around Colorado, most are still producing young 35 years later. On our resource rich mountain streams the main limiting factor for dipper populations is the lack of suitable nest sites. The boxes help fill the gap and act as a population sink.
Here are 2022 images of active nests on the South at Sourdough and at Ceran St. Vrain. Adults were feeding young at both nests on June 9. On that date, adults were feeding and later fledged 9 young from two of the three boxes on the Middle. Dippers were also feeding young at the active nest box in Jamestown on June 9th last year.
Last night I heard either my first Northern saw-whet or northern Pygmy owl calling. Wondering if someone knows which one is more common up here? I can’t clearly distinguish which one the call belonged to.
(03-17-2023, 12:27 PM)tulkula Wrote: Last night I heard either my first Northern saw-whet or northern Pygmy owl calling. Wondering if someone knows which one is more common up here? I can’t clearly distinguish which one the call belonged to.
Karla, both are probably equally likely to be in the JT area now, along with screech-owl, great horned, and possibly long-eared. Flammulated should arrive before long.
Another helpful tool is the free phone app, Merlin. When opened, Merlin can ID birds from a photo or a recording taken with the phone. Neat stuff.
Pygmy Owls are diurnal whereas Saw-whets are nocturnal, so the time of day they call might help with ID. But, I have seen and heard Pygmies call at night, and Saw-whets call very briefly in the daytime. Because of their night/day activity, Saw-whets have adapted to fly silently while Pygmy Owl flight can be readily heard. I encounter both Pygmy and Saw-Whet Owls nearly every year and am often able to call them in by mimicking their calls. Pygmy Owl calls tend to be louder and a few times I've brought them in from a half mile away. To avoid disrupting their mating it's best to limit calling to a few moments.
This is fabulous Steven, thank you! I have the Merlin app which I love and which helped me narrow it down to those two owls. I love knowing about the nocturnal vs. diurnal tendencies of each, having heard daytime calls and nighttime, now I feel I can track better. Since this time was at night it may have been the Saw-Whet.
I'll check out the other links you sent.
And YES!! I would LOVE to see them in the wild and I bet they are hard to spot. I am always on the alert in our magnificent forest places and count on the stellar jays and crows for help with that.
Thanks again for all your posts on birds and the great work you do.
Karla, just as you found with Merlin not distinguishing between Pygmy and Saw-whet calls (which can be tough for us, too), Merlin missed when I was recording Steller's Jays. I'm new to using Merlin. I think the histograms may be accurate but the song data is incomplete (or both). Merlin kept identifying a Red-tailed Hawk in my yard when it was actually a Steller's mimicking a Red-tailed, which they often do.
When the jays and crows, all the birds like chickadees and nuthatches start sounding off all at once, that's the clue to look for a predator bird or other animal. Grab the binoculars, go outside and look. You could get lucky and see the Pygmy Owl, Cooper's Hawk, Pine Marten or Long-tailed Weasel. It's called mobbing when the birds try to push the predator away. But local predators routinely return to the site of a successful kill. Whether it's an owl after voles, a weasel after rabbits, or a bear predating the free roaming cats in JT. They know where the easy food is.
And John, my friend, if you really want to save the bears and other wildlife, Jamestown has to outlaw free roaming cats and dogs.
This is a photo from last August of a Coopers Hawk juvenile I took just below you. He was getting a drink and flushed up into the tree as Lila and I approached.
That was before the 1st footbridge in Gillespie. Michelle ID'd it for me. I have seen either this guy or one of his parents at the top of the 1st Rd to Owen's Flatts, just
a week or two ago. Late PM.
Pine Marten and Long-tailed Weasels! I would LOVE to see them and didn't know they were around here. I am usually focused on looking up when I hear those jay and crow alerts, only just scanning the ground. Now you've inspired me to bring binoculars on my walks now.
John I've seen that one around our house as well, such a beauty. Thanks for the photo and all the good intel neighbors!
(03-19-2023, 11:36 AM)tulkula Wrote: Pine Marten and Long-tailed Weasels! I would LOVE to see them and didn't know they were around here. I am usually focused on looking up when I hear those jay and crow alerts, only just scanning the ground. Now you've inspired me to bring binoculars on my walks now.
John I've seen that one around our house as well, such a beauty. Thanks for the photo and all the good intel neighbors!
We're so fortunate to live in an area where we're surrounded by wildlife. I see Pine Marten and Long-tailed Weasels every year, sometimes the tiny Short-tailed Weasel, and lately Mink on the stream by the cabin. Last year, I watched a weasel kill and carry off a rabbit right next to the cabin. A few weeks ago, a friend in Ward got photos of a Long-tailed in it's white winter coat as it took down a rabbit outside her window. Mountain cottontails weigh six times that of a weasel which can easily haul them away. I have no doubt that a 9 oz. weasel could kill one of my 8 lb. cats if they were ever to get out of the house. I once watched a Pine Marten carry a Snowshoe Hare to the top of a tree to keep ground predators from stealing it's kill. And I've watched martens scavenge on deer and elk.
Many times, I've called martens and weasels to me and had them stand against my leg looking up to the source of the call. They can often be found by the presence of mobbing birds.
A few years ago, I got great video of male and female Pine Martens sparring over the remains of an elk carcass. Here are stills from video of the male checking out my pack, and the smaller female sheltering in the hollow of a log.
Hi Steven B --
Your pictures are Great,
but I have to say that earlier,
I was jealous for you living in Puerto Vallarta !
Thank you for sharing.
RandyO
