Raptor Alley - Nunn

[robert beauchamp]

After reading Ajit Antony's post on the 18th regarding HMANA's Winter Raptor Survey, I uploaded the Nunn Raptor Alley route into their database and drove the route earlier today. Raptor Alley is included in the Eastern Plains Colorado Birding Trail. 

The diversity of birds was decent, though the numbers were a bit low. I only saw a handful of active prairie dogs on today's chilly day, which may have impacted some of the foraging of larger birds. Lots of Horned Larks, with a group of about 800 on CR33 at CR94. Among them I heard only two Lapland Longspurs, and briefly scanned for bunting, but no luck.

Here are the raptor numbers:

• 1 Golden Eagle
  
• 2 Northern Harrier
  
• 2 Bald Eagle
  
• 7 Red-tailed Hawk
  
• 1 Rough-legged Hawk
  
• 2 Ferruginous Hawk
  
• 2 American Kestrel
  
• 1 Prairie Falcon

Here is the link to the Hawk Migration Association of North America if you are interested in their work: https://www.hmana.org/winter-raptor-survey/

Robert Beauchamp

Fort Collins