[cobirds] Migrant raptors etc yesterday, El Paso

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

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