Hi all, While heading up to Wray with my WINGS tour, we stopped at the cemetery on the north side of Burlington. We experienced what was among my best thirty minutes of sky watching in eastern Colorado including an early MISSISSIPPI KITE, Broad-winged Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, and Prairie Falcon. Notes from my eBird checklist are below. Just to the north of here we found a flock of at least 1900 Yellow-headed Blackbirds.
Location: Burlington Cemetery Observation date: 4/23/10 Notes: Stopped to check the cemetery. A few landbirds, but the real highlight was the amazing migration taking place overhead. While driving to the cemetery we first detected an adult Broad-winged Hawk. As we scanned overhead at the cemetery we had a number of migrants, highlighted by a MISSISSIPPI KITE, an adult Peregrine Falcon and a Prairie Falcon. Also lots of pelicans (flock of 79 and 26) and a very unexpected flyover American Wigeon. Then OBSERVERS: WINGS Tour led by Chris Wood with Valarie Barnes, Mary Case, James Goodwin, and Nancy Magnusson. Number of species: 35 American Wigeon 1 flyover. Mallard 1 Ring-necked Pheasant 2 American White Pelican 105 (79 and 26) Turkey Vulture 3 Osprey 1 Mississippi Kite 1 **Rare. Early. A single adult flew over in direct comparison with Prairie Falcon and Northern Harrier. Bird appeared falcon like but with more slender wings, narrower forked tail and more fluid buoyant wing beats. At this distance appeared grayish overall with paler head (crown). Identified by flight style and shape, which was easy given good raptor flight at the time. Northern Harrier 3 Cooper's Hawk 1 Broad-winged Hawk 1 Adult seen in flight. First detected and identified from within the town of Burlington, but we could still see it when we arrived at the cemetery. Swainson's Hawk 7 Red-tailed Hawk 1 Peregrine Falcon 1 **Locally rare. My first in the county. The first raptor that we noticed after the Broad-winged in what proved to be an amazing hawk flight. Adult. Prairie Falcon 1 Flyover. Killdeer 1 Rock Pigeon 1 Eurasian Collared-Dove 40 Mourning Dove 6 Great Horned Owl 1 Horned Lark 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Townsend's Solitaire 1 American Robin 25 Cedar Waxwing 18 Orange-crowned Warbler 1 Spotted Towhee 1 Chipping Sparrow 9 Brewer's Sparrow 1 White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel's) 5 Western Meadowlark 3 Common Grackle 5 House Finch 1 Pine Siskin 45 House Sparrow 5 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) Cheers, Chris Wood eBird & Neotropical Birds Project Leader Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York http://ebird.org http://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
