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 birdwatchers (that's us)
Wild Bird Center Saturday Walks:
From 7:30 am (promptly)
to 9:45 am (approximately)
Every Saturday year-round.
Every last Saturday of the month we travel further afield than normal
and return a little later.
Birdwalks
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Upcoming Events
white-breasted nuthatch
October's
Special Birdwalk: Look for Loons
Join us Saturday October 25th to look for loons on our local reservoirs. The end of October is the best time to find loons passing through. I shouldn't mention this, but we have always found loons on our special Saturday walk at the end of October. We will carpool from the Wild Bird Center leaving promptly at 7:30 am and returning about 11:00 am. No reservations required. Call the store at 303-442-1322 for more information.
red-breasted nuthatch
Annual Fall Sale:
October 21-26 We'll have a lot of quality feeders, baths, seeds, books, and more on sale this year. This is a great time to get a jump on holiday shopping or just pick out a new feeder to replace your beat up one in the backyard. Mark your calendars! Also look for an email sales flyer at the start of the sale showcasing some of the deals. See you at the store. |
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Wild Bird Center
of Boulder
Quick Links
Xcel Energy BirdCams
One fun way to participate in the lives of local birds is by viewing Xcel Energy's Web Cams
owl cam
eagle cam
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Nature Photography
by
Wendy Marie Stuart
 "solitary sandpiper"
Visit our store to see a gallery of Wendy's matted and framed prints
and greeting cards for all occasions or
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Photo Credits
"Solitary Sandpiper" by Wendy Marie Stuart
"Queen and Bee" by Wendy Marie Stuart
"The Three Cranes" by Wendy Marie Stuart
White-breasted Nuthatch by Wendy Marie Stuart
Red-breasted Nuthatch by Wendy Marie Stuart |
Send Us Your Pictures
Send us photos of your backyard wildlife and we will add them to our slide show of digital pictures in our store. Along with your pictures please give us your name, date of the photo, and your general location. (We especially love to get pictures of birds on feeders) E-mails can be sent to: WBCBoulderCO@aol.com. | |
Welcome to "Boulder Backyards" queen butterfly & bee
Wild Bird Center of Boulder adheres to a strict privacy policy that means your information will not be shared, sold, or otherwise distributed. If you do not wish to receive any further eNewsletters with Offers and Resource information, click the "SafeUnsubscribe" link at the bottom of this page. We value your relationship!
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Funny Fall
We've been having a funny fall. I still had a hummingbird at my feeder last Saturday (Oct. 4). In fact, I've had hummers every day for the last two months at my Longmont home. Also, the fall color around here was late and not particularly dramatic. Does our warm fall, poor colors, and the late hummingbirds mean anything? Are we seeing the effects of global warming in dramatic fashion? Or should we just chalk it up to wacky Colorado weather?
I think the answer lies in a combination of the two former statements. Are we seeing the effects of global warming on our bird populations? I think that we are, particularly with partial migrants. A partial migrant is a shorter distant migrant whose summer range and winter range overlap. Examples of partial migrants in Colorado are American goldfinch, American robin, and western meadowlark. We have these birds year-round, but not necessarily the same individuals. Common grackles are partial migrants, but the northern part of their winter range lies just south of us in New Mexico. What we have been seeing over the past two decades is that common grackles are leaving later and returning earlier to Boulder County. I don't think that it will be long before they are year-round (at least some of them). A combination a factors is influencing this shift. One is habitat change to a more urban landscape and the other is global warming. The American Bird Conservancy did an interesting and disturbing study predicting the future ranges of many North American Birds.
But what about my late hummingbirds? For the most part, the hummingbirds have been arriving and leaving as "normal". We see quite a lot of variability in earliest arrival and latest departure dates for hummingbirds in Colorado, but the bulk of the population is still on their old schedule. The timing of when to migrate is influenced by many factors including daylight hours, food availability, and weather. These factors weight differently with different species. For example, many irruptive finches like red crossbills are heavily influenced by food availability. They will migrate towards greatest food availability even if that means going further north in the winter. A flycatcher will leave to go south when the insect population is at its highest, it does not respond to food in the same way that red crossbills do. My late hummingbird "knows" its time to leave, it is just taking its time because of the warm fall. Next year we might have a cold fall and the birds will respond appropriately. So for this year, I don't think the late hummers are anything to panic about, but I also think that as the falls shift to warmer temperatures we will see more birds lingering and eventually they will change their migration pattern as a population. |
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northern flicker 
Flickers in the Fall
Every autumn we hear about flickers excavating holes in people's houses. Flickers cause more problems in this regard in the spring, but we do see some flickers excavating winter roosting sites in the fall. Hopefully, they are not excavating on your house. If this is happening to you or someone you know, go to our e-newsletter archive and read about how to deal with flickers.
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Annual Fall Sale
October 21-26th
Look for an email flyer
at the start of the sale showcasing some great deals! | |
 Ask Steve
Q: What's the difference between a creeper and a nuthatch?
A: Both birds are bark gleaners meaning they pick things off tree bark to eat, but they look and act differently. Nuthatches are the clowns of the bird world with their funny calls and topsy-turvy movements on the tree trunks and branches. Nuthatches will often climb their way head down on a tree in search of food like spiders, spider eggs, scale, and other insects. They are also very fond of sunflower seeds and suet. Sometimes on the Saturday Bird Walk I refer to them as nutheads instead of nuthatches because of their antics. We have three species of nuthatches locally; white breasted, red breasted, and pygmy. Click on the links below to hear, see, and learn more about the nuthatches.
The brown creeper is another interesting bird to watch, but it is much harder to spot than a nuthatch. They are colored the same as the bark and their call is a high pitched thin whistle which many people cannot hear. They eat about the same things that nuthatches eat, but they travel up the tree trucks in search of food. I this way they get to see food that the nuthatches miss by going the other way. Creepers don't come to feeders like the nuthatches, but they do occasionally come to my suet feeder.
For additional information, click on the links below: Brown Creeper info: Click here White Breasted Nuthatch info: Click here Q: I spotted some sandhill cranes flying high overhead. Do they normally come through this way?
A: We do have cranes fly over in their southward migration from mid-September to early November, but rarely do they land in Boulder County. Usually you hear their distinctive calls high up to alert you to their presence. They can soar very high so you might need some binoculars just to see them as they fly by. The best days to hear and see them are cold cloudy fall days because this keeps them from soaring so high. You may not see many in any given fall, but when you do see them you will probably see quite a few. I have often seen flocks of several hundred in the fall. Why don't they overnight around here? I'm really sure, but they do occasionally stop in small numbers at places like Union Reservoir, McIntosh Lake, and Boulder Reservoir. We will often get reports of flocks at the store. First someone from Lyons will call. Then someone from Lake of the Pines will call followed by people in Boulder etc. It's a fun way to track the flocks as they travel south. Click here to hear and learn more about sandhill cranes. |
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year??
At the Wild Bird Center we have been ordering Christmas Cards and 09 Calendars recently. (Believe it or not, we were a little late in ordering.) We have some lovely cards and calendars on the way so don't forget us if you have a need. We should have most of them out by late September/early October (but not our Christmas decorations).
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Colorado Birding Trail
The Colorado Division of Wildlife has recently published a small booklet highlighting the best birding spots in Southeastern Colorado. This glossy booklet is well organized and informative. It's a must have for local birders and its FREE. The Division has sent us a case of these books to give away. Please stop by the Wild Bird Center to pick up your copy.
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We Love to Hear From You!
Stop on in, send an email, or, give us a call. We love to hear about your latest birding experiences and look forward to sharing ours. Thanks for your support! Happy Birding!
-- Steve, Marlene, Bill, & Wendy
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Contact Info:
Steve Frye, Owner WBCBoulderCO@aol.com (303) 442-1322
Wild Bird Center of Boulder 1641 - 28th Street Boulder, CO 80301 | |
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