Date: 6/5/25 10:43 am From: Michael M. Melius via groups.io <pingothenbingo...> Subject: [sd-birds] Some "site tenacity" type observations
In April last year I bought a place in Hot Springs. On the 25th I saw a Black-capped Chickadee in the yard, and was able to get close to it as it was very preoccupied, tugging hairs from the dried carcass of a cottontail. (They nested off-site--in early July an adult and two well-fledged young were seen in the yard.) Turns out I didn't get all of that carcass buried. On 21 April of this year I again got close to a chickadee furiously pulling hairs--from one of the rabbit's hind legs.
On 27 May I was birding in the Chautauqua Park area and was just driving away on Cold Brook Ave. when something triggered me to think, "I really need to check that cliff." And somehow while rolling along, through openings in the trees, I saw a whitish lump up there, that turned out to be a young Great Horned Owl. Then I remembered--I'd observed GHOW young at this spot back in May, 2012, while birding here ahead of the SDOU meeting near Edgemont.
