Possible Black Swifts/Colorado Springs?

[The "Nunn Guy"]

Jason probably interested in this report ... :-)

Gary,

I just read the large article on black swifts, http://www.aba.org/thecoolestbird.pdf, and note that it includes no sightings of Black Swift east of the Sangre de Cristos in the south of Colorado.  You may wish to know about this observation from a friend of mine here.

----- John Murphy <murphy...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I didn't realize that Warren, and thought I read our county had documented them and this was not a big deal. I can say that it is an accident to be there by the monolith (above where the Old Stage turns to dirt) when they are feeding the chicks, although I have seen them there many times. When I see them it is usually when I am lying in bed supine during the day, and then, through our 4 x 8 skylight, I see them, say, one in twelve times, during the summers, as small yet fast, flopping movers, way up in the sky. Of course, when I was sick, and mostly bedridden, I seemed to see them most every day.
>
> When they are closer, it is hard to keep them in the field of view of my 10 power Minox binocs. They can fly like no other bird I have watched around here, totally erratic, like they are changing their minds constantly.
>
> It takes me a while to look up and find a new bird. But when I saw them from 100 feet away, landing and taking off from the main monolith above the road (the tightest spot in the road), I found them alright, with their huge wings. I think there are others up Dalling Canyon, (again where the OSR turns to dirt, but maybe they were just feeding, but I have seen them there, up canyon. The only place I saw them land and re-land though, was the one monolith next to the road.
>
> I think there are more nests below that peninsula of land that juts out, above south Cheyenne Canyon, where Helen Hunt Jackson's home used to be, as I have seen them there flopping around, but due to the foreshortening of vision caused by the canyon rim, I never saw one land. They were on the Cheyenne Mtn. side of the canyon, not the Cutler side. You look down upon them from this vantage. It is just below the OSR after the road turns south where the western vistas appear. This is no longer owned by Lyda Hill, so I don't have permission to go there anymore, but Mr. Anschutz is a naturalist and a hiker, and I bet I could get permission from Wayne Hoskins, the head of Broadmoor security. This would be about 400 yards from the falls. A hike up Mt. Cutler gives many good cross-canyon views of this area once the ridge is reached, and here one needs no permission.
>
> This is a hard bird to document, for a very rank amateur like me, as they are so erratic, as to when they appear. They eschew the feeders I have, and faithfully fill. You are welcome to come by on a low ceiling day. They are easier to see against the cloud bottoms than the blue sky, and I see them more often on cloudy days.
>
> I have lived here 45 years, in the same home, and have seen the same birds since at least thirty of those years. This year, at this time, I can guarantee you will see a family of 7 wild turkeys feeding on my feeders' droppings, the red tailed hawk I told you about looking for the Eurasian dove carcasses, and a big flock of grosbeaks, and 20 or more hummers, but it will have to be serendipitous if we see the black swifts, from my deck. You and Betty are the first people to be interested in this, and I know I have told scores of folks about them over the decades, and they just nod.
> My best,
> John
>
> John Patrick Michael Murphy
> Philosopher

Thanks Gary Lefko, Nunn
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