On Sunday, July 30, 2017 at 8:32:27 AM UTC-6, Dave Leatherman wrote:
>
> Rich,
>
> I have been spending a fair amount of time on the western part of the West
> Unit of the Pawnee Grasslands this summer tracking the activities of
> loggerhead shrikes. I have seen virtually no Swainson's Hawks. I recorded
> a whopping 1 on each of two 150-mile loops in the last month. Grasshopper
> expert Tim McNary, formerly of USDA-APHIS and now an affiliate of the
> Gillette Museum at Colorado State recently went out to Crow Valley and came
> home with only a dozen or so specimens of hoppers of, I think, four
> species! Tim can usually find that many before he gets out of the car!
> Normally the most commonly impaled object of shrikes are grasshoppers
> (particularly two species, *Xanthippus corallipes* and *Arphia conspersa*).
> This summer, I've maybe seen a total of 10 grasshoppers impaled. I've seen
> 5X that many hoppers impaled in one shrike territory in years past. Very
> few big hoppers this year on the northern prairie. The shrikes have
> compensated by terrorizing herps and various crickets.
>
>
> I have heard the hopper population in southeastern CO is just the
> opposite, at least at present in terms of nymphs. Clouds of them when you
> walk thru a pasture. Maybe there are also good hopper populations in the
> meadows of the Wet Mountains. All the moisture is growing green hopper
> food, i.e. plants. Maybe what you saw is a regional relocation of hawks in
> response to food abundance, sort of like what we're seeing with
> dickcissels. Maybe many of the hawks that normally populate the northern
> plains never made it up here, or maybe had second thoughts once they got
> here and drifted back south, who knows? I do know I had that big number of
> 160+ Swainson's hawks on my Lamar BBS route which was bizarre in my
> experience. I received comments that these were probably mostly young,
> non-breeding birds that just come north to loaf and feed for their first
> independent summer before returning south. Maybe the majority of what you
> saw was this age group. My bet would be the majority of buteos were
> Swainson's, and that they were also somewhat staging for their later
> departure south.
>
>
> Interesting, whatever it was. Thanks for your post.
>
>
> Dave Leatherman
>
> Fort Collins
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* millerrichj via Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com
> <javascript:>>
> *Sent:* Sunday, July 30, 2017 12:00 AM
> *To:* cob...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>
> *Subject:* [cobirds] Hawks Galore in Wetmore (Custer)
>
> This morning in the fields north of Wetmore I counted over 100 buteos in
> an area of maybe 50 acres. Most were perched on fence posts, a few were on
> the ground. None were flying. They were mixed buteo species. I
> identified Red-tailed, Swainson's and a Harrier. It was private
> property and most were too far away to identify as species, however, they
> appeared to be mostly buteos.
>
> I don't remember ever seeing anything like this before It was almost
> surreal. Why would so many hawks converge on one area in late July?
>
> Rich Miller
> Canon City
>
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Last Sunday I saw at least 4 Swainson's hawks between Falcon and Peyton
which seemed high compared to prior visits to this area..
http://www.avoapples.com/birds/_MG_5242_cr.jpg
http://www.avoapples.com/birds/_MG_5313_cr.jpg
tx
Bill Kosar
bill_ko...@msn.com
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