Drove to beautiful Ouray this past weekend to chalk up a Black Swift lifer, very affordable at $4 admission to Box Cañon Falls Park. http://www.ouraycolorado.com/Box+Canon+Falls+Park
A fellow tourist with sharper eyes pointed out to me a Black Swift on nest about ten feet from a stair landing. So that was great, bingo. But even more fortunate was bumping into Sue Hirshman, guardian of the Box Cañon Black Swifts. http://www.rmbo.org/dataentry/postingArticle/dataBox/BREEDING-PHENOLOGY-AND-SUCCESS-OFBLACK-SWIFTS-IN-BOX-CANYON-OURAY-COLORADO.pdf Sue very patiently pointed out for me two more Black Swift nests, these farther away in dark shadows. My eyes are not acute, to say the least. To “see” these swift nests, I would take a picture of the potential dark area with my 400 mm lens. Then I would show Sue the pic on my camera’s LCD monitor. “Is that it?” “No, aim a little lower.” Next pic.“Is that it” “You got it!” And sure enough, I did. Sue visits Box Canyon one or two time per day all through the long Black Swift nesting season, in order to monitor the health and success of the Black Swift population. She told me that Black Swifts in Box Canyon are way down this year, arrived late and few arrived. Sue keeps an eye on all their nests, only about a half dozen this year. She hopes they don’t become endangered. Let’s hope for more next year. Thanks to Sue Hirshman and the late Rich Levad & Owen Knorr, and many others who have devoted great effort toward the conservation and understanding of this rare species. They are Colorado heroes. Here is a pic of Sue and pics of Black Swifts on nest at Box Canyon. http://twilberding.zenfolio.com/p955241659/slideshow Tom Wilberding Boulder, CO -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
