The Glen Eyrie reservoirs had fish large enough for Ospreys in the 1980s, when I routinely trespassed up there.
On Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 2:38:40 PM UTC-6, Marty wrote: > > Hey, CObirders, > > I took an afternoon walk yesterday over toward a hogback just SE of the > Flying W Ranch entrance in NW CO Spgs, in a Mountain Shadows natural common > area, and over the course of 45 minutes saw a number of migrants heading > north along or beside the hogback into a stiff N/NW wind. (This ridge is I > believe an extension slightly north of one where Steve Brown used to do a > hawkwatch during migration, before the Waldo Canyon fire and then his > getting into banding at Clear Spring Ranch.) > > It started with magpies drawing my attention to a snag up on the ridgetop > where a large raptor was perched while eating away at its catch; I'd never > seen an Osprey in this neighborhood but from the distance was fairly sure > that's what it was. I ended up waiting 40 minutes hoping for it to finish > and fly off so I'd have the more diagnostic view of it in flight. Plenty of > other entertainment while I waited: > > first a single Kestrel heading north just on this eastern side of the > ridge, and a male Broad-tailed Hummer whistling by overhead to points > northward, > then a juvenile western Red-tail and a Cooper's Hawk, followed by what I > believe was a dark juvenile Swainson's Hawk, > then two more Kestrel, an unidentifiable (due to the distance) couple of > swifts, and a handful of Violet-green Swallows, > then a Turkey Vulture, and two more male Broad-tailed Hummers separately > heading north overhead... > > in addition to local Common Ravens, Crows, a Say's Phoebe, and House > Finches... > > and then the Osprey did indeed finish and fly off northward, staying > accomodatingly above the ridge in my view as it flew and confirmed its > identity. Tho Birds of the World indicates Osprey will occasionally take > small reptiles and mammals, I've never seen them catch anything besides > fish. I was much too far away to decipher its meal, but if it were a fish > I'd be curious where/how far away it caught it? Sort-of nearby waters > include Camp Creek in Queen's Canyon, Palmer Reservoir out of which Camp > Creek flows, and Glen Eyrie reservoirs on the west end of the Mesa SE of > the 30th St/Garden of the Gods Rd. intersection... How far would an Osprey > carry a fish to go eat it on a ridgetop in a gusty NNW wind? > > By the way, the young male Summer Tanager that first arrived in our back > yard around 4-5 pm in a storm on 4/16 appears to have finally left sometime > after 3:35 pm yesterday 4/24 (time of my last photo, and I haven't seen it > yet today, after having daily appearances for each of those 9 days). Maybe > after sufficient R&R & sustenance it launched off with those NW winds to > find more suitable/populated territory to the south and east. > > Marty Wolf > NW CO Spgs > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/750ed849-1b38-492d-a292-1e5414d1eee1%40googlegroups.com.
