A few birds of note from my hike on the Fountain Valley trail today, Sept 9, not including the usual suspects:
- I put up a flock of ?200? chipping sparrows on the west leg of the loop just north of the fork. I glassed about 20, did not see anything but chippies.
- As I was glassing 2 Cooper's hawks circling above I noticed swarms of small birds far above them, silhouetted against the overcast. Too small to see with the naked eye, I guessed by their general shape and behavior they may have been cliff swallows. They were flying in disorganized patterns as if they were hunting insects, moving in a general northerly direction. They covered a large area of the sky, perhaps a tenth of it, and I would guess there may have been thousands of them up there.
- A lone Swainson's hawk grabbed some air over the Dakota hogback and circled up to several hundred feet, then broke off and made a beeline due south. I watched it till it disappeared from view, and I had a broad view of the sky. I guess not all Swainson's migrate in flocks.
Monday evening the folks on the moonlight hike (Ha! dark as pitch with thick cloud cover) were serenaded by upwards of 4 poorwills.
Keep Smilin',
Kevin Corwin
west Centennial
Arapahoe County
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