You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to Colorado Birds
Barb and I were pleased to see 9
Rough-legged Hawks, all light morph, this afternoon in Elbert and Lincoln counties.
3 south of Matheson on Elbert CR 149 to CR 66, spaced a couple of miles apart.
2 more, a male and a female, at the top of a tree east of that junction, 149
& 66. (Seemed unusual for a solitary hawk species in non-breeding season.)
4 more along I-70 between Limon and Bovina, spaced a couple of miles apart.
We also saw a Prairie Falcon, and two prairie Merlins, all spaced far apart.
It seems that during some winters Rough-legged Hawks are fairly common in
Colorado, other winters not so much. They eat lemmings in the Arctic, so maybe
their numbers fluctuate with the lemming population, like Snowy Owls. I wonder
if anyone keeps an annual Colorado census of this sort? I wasn’t able to glean such
data from eBird.
Horned larks were not abundant for us today, and no Lapland Longspurs despite
many patches of freshly plowed earth.
More on Rough-legged Hawks from the internet, if you’re interested:
As Swainson’s Hawks retreat to South America, Rough-legged Hawks descend from
the Arctic tundra to take their place. Buteo
lagopus. “Lagopus”is Greek for “feet
like a hare’s”. Yep, they’re sort of
furry, covered with feathers, like ptarmigan, another Arctic bird. John James Audubon
called it Rough-legged Falcon. Wikipedia calls it Rough-legged Buzzard.
They breed in the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Eurasia, the
only buteo that has a complete circumpolar distribution. Along with the kestrels,
kites and osprey, this is one of the few birds of prey to hover regularly--we
saw that activity today. There are three subspecies.
They have small talons and prey on small rodents, like lemmings and voles, but
are also known to take young snow buntings and Lapland longspurs. (Yes,
my excuse!) They can live 19 years in the wild.
Good winter birding!
Tom Wilberding
Littleton, Colorado