Around West Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

I spent the morning and early afternoon around west Arapahoe. Highlights today (10/28) include: 

• at Blackmer Lake: a rather later Western Tanager. Swamp Sparrow. At least one, possibly two, striking, very dark Red-tails. 
  
• in Littleton, a flock of 45 or so Sandhill Cranes, catching a thermal around Broadway & Littleton Blvd. 
• my first Merlin of the year, at the Rollin D. Barnard Equestrian Park in Greenwood Village. As the local raptors typically do, the Merlin was perched along the enormous transmission towers. I got to see it (apparently) flush north when a Red-tailed Hawk came through, then u-turn and head south to pursue a flock of waxwings already in flight.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO