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Raptor Chronicles
By Colorado's Oldest Raptor Sanctuary
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Message from the President
Like a light switch flipped all too quickly, we went from summer warm temps of 80F to TWENTY inches of snow in Denver, falling from November 5th though 8th. Our gyrfalcon was delighted, as were our four eagles, but I know the humans were definitely grumbling a bit.
Speaking of eagles, they're baaack!! The bald eagles, that is! November is when migrants from up north start showing up around Colorado's Front Range, and last week I was treated to the sight of two second winter subadults chasing each other around the sky as I arrived to work. Bald eagles are the stars of winter here in Denver, and the visitors from up north interact with many of our breeding pairs who essentially stay in Colorado year-round and are considered non-migratory. Biologists from Colorado Parks & Wildlife are studying how bald eagles utilize the Front Range corridor for reproduction and foraging, all while inhabiting the same spaces as humans, and the preliminary data coming in are fascinating. As one of our board members says, "There's so much about the lives of wild birds that we don't know." I was stunned to see that one of the juvenile females tagged with a GPS solar-powered transmitter journeyed all the way up to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada, during the spring and summer she turned one year old. The information which can be gleaned from studying these movements is invaluable and can help scientists of many disciplines collaborate to conserve species on a landscape-level scale.
Our own female bald eagle has a very busy month ahead, as do we. Ski racing fans, hang onto your hats, because this year we're making not one, but TWO trips up to Beaver Creek for the Birds of Prey World Cup. For the first time in the event's 27 year history (we helped inaugurate the course in 1997), a Women's race will be run the weekend after the Men's. This is an event unlike any other that we participate in, and we're so excited to once again showcase the very best that Colorado's mountain communities have to offer to visitors and locals alike. We look forward to working with the Vail Valley Foundation, the Talon Crew, the hundreds of event volunteers and saying hello to our Summit and Eagle County members in person.
None of this is possible without YOUR support and membership. As Thanksgiving approaches, we thank each of you for contributing to the care and feeding of our birds, enabling guests from overseas to see the living national symbol of the United States up close. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel to see all the excitement!
Snow flakes fall, storms blow in and out, the seasons come and go...but as we say at REF:
EAGLES ARE FOREVER!
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A Few Quick REF History Links
White House Visit, Colorado’s First Environmental License Plates, Best Raptor Book Ever, Our Raptors Cruise to Alaska, Consulting on National Memorial Sculpture, US Naval War College Special Program, Colorado Parks & Wildlife, Birds of Prey International Skiing Championships, International Falconry Festival, National Geographic, State & County Fairs, Natural Solutions Consulting Services
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Occasionally, we are gifted with stunning, interesting and unusual works of art by audience participants and loyal members who repeatedly attend our presentations. Thank you to Randy, one of the "regulars" at Eagle View Adult Center in Brighton! This is NOT your ordinary set of Legos, to be sure, but thanks to Randy's patience and a bit of Super Glue, we have this amazing piece of art staring at us each morning. He's turned into quite the conversation starter. | |
November 5th Commerce City Nest Confirmation | |
On Election Day, Peter visited the Commerce City bald eagle that we feature on a regular basis on our YouTube channel. He dropped in to see if the mated pair had returned from their summer sojourns and he got lucky. The eagles were perched not far from their nest, enjoying the midday sun. Stay tuned as we continue covering this nest for the 2025 nesting season! | |
YouTube Request!
For those of you enjoying the videos posted on our channel, we very much appreciate your viewership. If you like what we're doing, please subscribe and please post comments! The latter improves our status with YouTube analytics in several key areas, and when we get to 1,000 subscribers, we can benefit from advertising revenues. Right now, we get no financial support from any of the promo pieces that appear with our videos.
Additionally, if you forward our YouTube videos to people that are of the avian inclination, our subscriber base will grow faster. Thank you for your support! ~Peter Reshetniak, Director of Special Projects
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Lots of Other Ways to Help! | |
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A Special Anniversary Offer on All Three of Our Books!
Celebrate our 45th anniversary by purchasing our
three books at this special price!
Just click
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Our Online Store is Open!
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Help Our Book Fly Higher:
Order Today!
Reviews
“A unique book aimed at introducing young and beginning birders to the world of raptors. . . . Creative for certain! Helpful, too.”–Jim Williams, Wingnut Blog, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“A very cool new book.”–Doc Kirby, On The Bookshelf
“Bird enthusiasts of all ages will find this book full of educational fun.”–Skipping Stones
“All the essays were well-written and provided lots of easy-to-understand information, which allows the reader to identify many different types of raptors. I also really enjoyed the further reading at the back of the book about the kestrel box. The instructions were clear-cut, and the activity was easy and fun to do.”–Hannah, age thirteen, Kids’ BookBuzz
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The newest Jabebo earrings are here! Jabebo received requests for this species from several nature centers in Florida, and by coincidence, our photographer friend Jeff Wang spent a few days chasing two species of kites, including the fascinating snail kite. The two designs are taken directly from Jeff's photos with very little editing; the male is on the left and the female, carrying a freshly-caught snail, is on the right.
Feeding almost exclusively on apple snails, this unusual raptor frequently practices ambisexual mate desertion, a reproductive strategy designed to maximize the number of young that survive to fledgling. Thank you, Jeff and Kevin Abbott, founder of Jabebo!
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Help us put another 1,000 eagles on the streets of our great state! Qualified members of REF are entitled to display them on their cars. Put Colorado's first and best environmental plates on YOUR vehicle!
| One of our members sent us this picture of his Cobra with our license plates. Anyone else out there with a classic car wearing our eagle? Send us your image! |
Special thanks to The Kroenke Group & THF Realty for extending our lease and keeping the fee at zero dollars though 2024! Support like this ensures we will make it through these challenging times.
Thanks to our past and future partners, THF Prairie Center Development, L.L.C., THF Prairie Center Investors, L.L.C. and the City of Brighton, for creating the best intersection in Colorado just a minute or two north of our headquarters!
As the new villages grow at Prairie Center, so do the streets with cool names! Check out some of the street names!
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WISH LIST
We're still looking for a gently-used, 20-25 foot RV (Class C) that would serve as a mobile office for traveling programs around Colorado and farther away. Or maybe you have an SUV or pickup truck you would like to donate? We can put it to good use! Please give our office a call if you have a vehicle you think we could use!
(303) 680-8500
Thank you!
Raptor Chronicles
Previous Issues Archived Here
Just in case you've missed any issues, we currently have issues dating back to January 2020.
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Limited Edition Eagle Pin |
An exclusive creation for us, this fine pewter pin has been hand painted to let everyone know what you think of America's living national symbol. Available in a very limited edition, while they last. This beautiful pin measures 1 1/8" by 1 1/2". Two clasps keep it firmly attached. $50 each includes shipping. Discounts for multiple purchases. Click here to order.
If you don't wish to use PayPal, then please click here.
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Horizontal Hawk Contest Winner! | |
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Winner announcement: Stephanie Foos of Severance, Colorado selected a pair of the Jabebo Osprey earrings as her reward for providing the correct answer. Stephanie and her son came to visit our birds about 5 years ago and have continued reading Chronicles ever since.
Stay tuned for more videos to test your raptor ID or raptor behavior skills. Stephanie, with a few prompts from our end, surmised the young Swainson's was reacting to an overhead threat. She was correct, but what she did not know, was that the threat was the young hawk's mother, and the response was an instinctive protective posture being triggered by this season's fledgling as a large threat appeared overhead. With the sun directly behind the adult, all the youngster could really see was a large ominous silhouette.
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We invite you to spend some time watching two of Colorado's eagle families (bald and golden) during the 2023 nesting season. This is the special video which was featured in the Sturm Family Auditorium during Raptor Day at Denver Botanic Gardens earlier this year. It runs about 18 minutes, so get some popcorn, sit back and enjoy an intimate look at both species of eagles found in North America.
Stay tuned for more exciting footage in 2025, and please became a subscriber by clicking on our logo on the lower right side of the screen!
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Join the 83 Families Helping Our Raptor Sanctuary
Help Us Reach 100 Supporting Families!
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Have you signed up for the King Soopers Community Rewards Program yet? Do you have a Loyalty Card and digital account? Just visit https://www.kingsoopers.com/o/store-services/community-rewards , log in and enroll to have REF receive donated funds from King Soopers and Kroger! We'd love to increase the number of families supporting us...please share with your friends and family!
OUR COMMUNITY REWARDS NUMBER IS TF405. Simply log into your account, look for "Community Rewards" on the left hand side, and enter TF405. Our name will appear, and you can link your card to REF. You save on groceries, earn fuel points, and we'll receive a quarterly donation from King Soopers.
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Red-tail on Point: Raptor Graffiti | |
When looking for raptors, such as the common red-tailed hawk, in some cases it can be more productive in the long run to look for raptor "graffiti". Once you've found it, and depending on how much you find in one location, you can be assured that you've discovered a local territory for a raptor. This video brings the point home at the intersection of art and nature. Enjoy, and please subscribe to our channel by clicking on our logo in the lower right side of the screen. | |
Jeff Wang's Raptor Captures | |
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While we're on the subject of red-tailed hawks, check out this lovely "rufous" or "intermediate dark morph western red-tail! Around the end of October, Anne spotted this dark bird just a few miles northeast of our office as she raced to the hinterlands to hunt with her own falcon. Several hours later, he was still in the general area as she headed home, this time on the opposite side of the interstate.
Anne noted the very dark belly and caramel breast, but wasn't too certain of what the tail looked like. A quick phone call to Jeff with as precise a location as she could convey, and voila! Leave it to Jeff to find a needle in the haystack...and get the photos to prove it!
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We've lightened this photo above a bit so you can see the contrast between the breast and belly of the typical rufous morph red-tailed hawk. The chocolate-brown eye also indicates that this handsome hawk is at least five years old. Hopefully he'll make this stretch of I-76 his winter territory for many weeks to come. Great detective work, Jeff! | |
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In addition to the United States of America, our Facebook followers are found in the following countries:
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama,
Russia, Spain, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
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Automatic Monthly Donations: Thanks to everyone who has set up a monthly donation via PayPal. We have people from both coasts, a few states in the middle and in Colorado contributing automatic monthly pledges...thank you all! | |
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REF Staff: Anne Price, President & Curator; Peter Reshetniak, Founder & Director of Special Projects; Savannah Grout, Mews Manager
Docents & Volunteers: Kristy Bortz, Clarissa Cigrand, Megan Considine, Kevin Corwin, Karen Gonzalez, Kim Kistler, Linda Julia, Jennifer McAllister, Denis Murray, Karen Ogle, Anne Price, Jennifer Redmond, Peter Reshetniak, Beverly Rice, Mitch Skinner and Ann Stanz
Docents in Training: Robert Mitchell, and Peggy Plaus
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