South Mesa Trail birds this morning - Broad Winged Hawk

[Jeff Parks]

Hello all -

I had some time this morning to get out, and thought I would check the activity at the South Mesa Trail outside of Eldorado Springs.  There wasn't much activity around the parking lot, or near the creek, where I was hoping there might be a stray migrant or two.    I only saw a couple of small birds flitting around in the thick bushes near the creek, much too fast for me to ID, and a few Blue Jays moving through the treetops.  I headed up the Mesa Trail, and turned off at the Towhee Trail.  Just before the Towhee turnoff,  I saw a Rock Wren hopping around on a large rock near the trail.  As I continued up the Towhee, I saw another two or three working through the bushes along the trail.  A Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher was also seen along the lower stretch of the Towhee.  About half-way up, I saw a hawk come over the ridge from the north, circling around.  A quick look through the binoculars showed that it was not a red-tail, and then I saw a broad white band in the middle of the tail, with black bands on either side.  The very tip of the tail had a small band of white.  The wingtips and back edges of the wings were black, so I happily wrote down Broad-Winged Hawk in my daily log.  It circled for a few minutes, and then headed off to the south.  Farther along, the Rock Wrens were still staying ahead of me, and I spotted what looked like a Prairie Falcon flying up the draw.  It landed in a tree out of sight, and wouldn't come out again.  When I got up to the top of the Towhee, there were a bunch of Yellow-Rumped Warblers working through the trees, and what looked like some Western Bluebirds as well. Their colors were pretty drab at this point, but everything pointed to WEBL as far as I could see. While I didn't see a large variety of birds, the ones I did see were well worth the effort.

Good birding -

Jeff Parks
Boulder, CO

[Jeff Parks]