On Monday I rode a 45 mi route on my bike from my home in N Boulder to Union Res (Longmont), hoping to find the continuing pair of Trumpeter Swans. Early on the ride I noticed a remarkable abundance of raptors, so I decided to keep a count. Stopping frequently to ID species slowed my progress, but it was quite an experience seeing so many raptors. And also turned out to be a good consolation for dipping on the Trumpeters. After leaving Union, my return route was via Panama Res, Niwot, and Boulder Res. If I'd had a couple more hours, I would have included the Lookout Hill/White Rocks loop, which would very likely have added at least a couple of species and many individuals to the count. I made an effort to try to avoid any double counting of individuals when retracing any part of the route.
Red-tailed Hawk--25, including one very cool light-morph Harlan's
Ferruginous Hawk--1
Bald Eagle--4
American Kestrel--12
Unidentified Buteo--1
Today (12/16), armed with a contingency plan based on valuable insight from Steve Mlodinow in case the swans weren't at the res, (and not quite fully recovered from my ride on Monday), I tried again for the Trumpeters, also counting raptors along the way. At Boulder Res, I found two Tundra Swans that I was really hoping were the relocated Trumpeters from Union (thinking that would save me about 30 miles of biking!). Fortunately, the Trumpeters were on the ice along the north shore of Union, actually not too far from the road, and provided great looks as they were busy preening. It then occurred to me that it might be possible to see the swan trifecta, so I returned via Lagerman/Swede Lakes, and was surprised and elated to find the pair of Mute Swans preening on their entirely frozen pond.
List of raptors:
Red-tailed Hawk--13
Ferruginous Hawk--4
Bald Eagle--3
American Kestrel--7
Northern Harrier--4
Sharp-shinned Hawk--1
Two especially memorable moments:
Returning Monday over the dam at Boulder Res and finding two adult Bald Eagles standing guard atop power poles by the outlet building, glaring down intensely and intimidatingly as I passed through.
Several minutes being in close proximity to a Ferruginous Hawk. I was counting and IDing raptors north of Monarch/IBM that were at least 200 yds away, packed up to leave, turned around, and right behind me perched on a power line was the Ferruginous.
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Tundra Swans
Trumpeter Swans
Mute Swans
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