Perhaps the mystery buteo is a leucistic Red-tailed Hawk? Kevin Corwin Centennial, Arapahoe County
On Monday, December 18, 2023 at 9:06:48 PM UTC-7 [email protected] wrote: > December Winter Raptor Survey of Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR and DIA Raptor > Alley, with sighting of a mystery buteo > > This is our 2nd season doing volunteer Winter Raptor Surveys (WRS) for > the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) since moving to > Denver in July 2022. Prior to moving we did 4 WRS in New York State in the > Hudson Valley area since 2016. > > Last winter season we did 3 surveys here – 1 in Denver and 2 in Boulder in > December 2022, and January and February 2023 for each route, following it > exactly, and roughly in the same week each month. > > This year we added another WRS in the area between Bennett and Jackson > Lake SP. We did that route a week ago with nothing special to report. It > may improve as winter progresses. > > Yesterday we completed the Rocky Mountain Arsenal to Barr Lake, and west > of Denver International Airport route for December 2023. > > We saw and identified 78 Raptors, including > > Ferruginous Hawk 5, all adult > > Prairie Falcon 1, which attacked a Red-tailed Hawk as > well as a Northern Harrier > > Bald Eagle 25 > > Northern Harrier 10 > > American Kestrel 5 > > Red-tailed Hawk 25, including 2 dark morph RT on Piccadilly > Road at Barr Lake, one perched and both in flight together. Spectacular. > > In addition we had a mystery buteo at 1st Creek at DEN Open Space perched > in a tree next to Peña Boulevard at 10:15 AM. When we finished our survey > and on the way back we could still see it (presumably the same buteo) at > the same location at 4:30 PM while driving south on Peña Boulevard. > > Our eBird checklist for that location with images is: > > https://ebird.org/checklist/S156663182 > > My notes written during the observation were: The tail was reddish with > multiple equal width bands, no sub-terminal band, with more reddish > distally than proximally, as well the left side of the tail was slightly > more red than the right side of the tail which was less red. There was a > thin eyeline on an otherwise white head with a black blob in the malar > area, no belly band but a few speckles in the flank area, white scapulars > and coverts. > > > > Liza fancied a Krider's Hawk looking at the Raptor ID app. Looking at > Brian Wheeler's Raptors of Western North America at the time, I felt it > could be a juvenile light morph Harlan's Hawk, except today reading more > about it in his Birds of Prey of the East and looking at the pictures, the > back is not stark black and white as his images show. > > I sent the images to the WRS coordinator for expert opinions. So far one > opinion is that it could be a Krider’s Hawk or an intergrade between > Krider’s and an Eastern borealis Red-tailed Hawk. > > Any learned expert opinions with detailed reasons for your ID would be > most welcome. > > I have to admit that neither of us have ever seen any of these possible > species! Our ID speculations are book/image-based only. > > > You can see what we found on our previous WRSs along the same and other > routes at > > https://wrs.hmana.org/public_html/index.php as well as the 1 other route > developed in the past winter season in Colorado – the Nunn Raptor Alley > route conducted by Robert Beauchamp. Go to the website to the left sidebar > and click on Survey Map and enlarge it to Colorado, you can click on > individual surveys and using the drop-down menu, find previous survey > results. > > Anyone can develop their own survey route. It is open to all. You can get > more information at: > > https://www.hmana.org/winter-raptor-survey/ > > If you like raptors and know of an area with raptors you can develop your > own route, as long as it doesn’t overlap an established one. Just follow > the guidelines on the website. If you want any questions answered you can > email the WRS coordinator Janice Sweet. I can also be of help if you want > someone local. > > Ajit & Liza Antony > > Central Park, CO (which used to be called Stapleton) > > > -- -- 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] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/CFO/Membership/ --- 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/ae963d10-2ef1-41fd-bd3d-6b8c3cf89593n%40googlegroups.com.
