If there is a theme to this newsletter, I think it would be something along the lines of "All Creatures Great and Small", to borrow the title from the beloved James Herriot book. James Herriot was the pseudonym for veterinarian Dr. James Alfred Wight OBE, but that's another story.

Yes, it's summer, and yes it's hot, very hot here in Denver, with not enough rain. We seem to have broken that pattern recently, but the mosquitos and constant vigilance required for weeds and growing blood feathers as our birds molt renders this my least favorite time of year. Bright spots and surprises remain around every corner however, as you can see in the photo above!

Susan Simpson of Eagle Academy High School approached me in January looking for a fundraising activity that could be student-driven. I explained to her that we needed a second, newer and VERY large kennel for our new female golden eagle. Fast forward to May, and Susan's class raised the funds to purchase this kennel. We visited her school on May 28th with our female golden, who is progressing slowly, but steadily, with her training. I really enjoyed explaining the nuts and bolts of her story with these kids who are on the cusp of beginning their careers, continuing to college, or both. The video of our presentation is below. The kennel arrived recently, and WOW...it's huge, and just what we needed! Shout our to senior docent and board member Kevin Corwin who is our resident "kennel converter" and will retrofit this beast to be eagle and human-friendly. In the photo, I'm holding the door, already custom-covered to make the kennel darker and help our golden feel secure as she travels to programs. We will have cared for our magnificent "dragon" for one year on August 2nd, and she continues to challenge me with her strength and intelligence, all the while dazzling me with her beauty.

On the other end of the spectrum, the grasshoppers were late this year, but now we have a fairly decent crop. I don't like them eating my flowers at home, but at our Brighton facility, they are eagerly hunted for our Mississippi kite. She gobbles them up like candy and they are excellent supplemental nutrition for her at this time of year. One of our docents, Denis, even repurposed a wild rice container which he christened the "Hopper Haus", adding a rubber flange at the top so we can keep leaves and some moisture contained with the the future "meals." I've never appreciated insects as much as I do now, constantly learning more about their critical role in many life cycles. Be sure to check out more cool kite news and some spectacular photos of wild kites further down in the newsletter!

And to top it all off, during our recent presentation at Golden Gate Canyon State Park, elevation ca. 9000 feet, a female broad-tailed hummingbird flew within twelve inches of my face while I was speaking, and then did the same to the back of our female bald eagle, before speeding off across the heads of the audience. The smallest of birds locked eyes with one of the largest, a magical moment I could not have predicted. I guess we should all keep our eyes open for the unexpected!~Anne Price, President

Our Golden Eagle Visits Eagle Academy

Continuing our story...here she is! Our female golden eagle (traveling in the old kennel) furthered her education as an ambassador bird, behaving perfectly in the meeting-style office space and classroom. The students asked very thoughtful questions about her history and training, and provided the perfect, up-close audience. THANK YOU to Eagle Academy for our new kennel for our newest eagle!

Raptor Captures by Jeff Wang

An unusual and lovely bird, found in Colorado from May to September, is the Mississippi kite, Ictinia mississippiensis. These are graceful, light (our female weighs about 9.5 oz) aerial birds which specialize in hunting insects, birds, and the occasional bat. They spend most of the year in countries like Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina, migrating north to the US to breed. Officially, they were once described as a bird of the southern-central Great Plains, but their range is expanding northward and they now breed in places as diverse as New Jersey and Ohio.

Ace photographer and REF friend Jeff Wang recently journeyed to Lamar in southeastern Colorado, and mange to capture some spectacular photos of Mississippi kites hunting, and being hunted, so to speak, by irate western kingbirds. Most intriguing to us, is the photo above with the kite carrying a frog in its beak. This species is not known for hunting on the ground. Their legs are very short, and their wings very long, and it is possible for them to become "grounded" if they land in the wrong kind of terrain or get wet. Another US kite, though in a completely different genus, is the white-tailed kite. It hunts mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and only rarely consumes insects. Jeff's al photo proves once again that raptors are resourceful and don't read the field guides!

The photos above and below explain why kingbirds vigorously drive kites away from their nests. The kites are known to swipe a nestling songbird or two, as they are communal nesters and often occupy groves of cottonwood trees, which kingbirds also use. In the top photo, you can see a small red patch on the top of the male kingbird's head. This is a special signal of aggression or alarm; the male spreads his gray crown and forehead feathers to reveal a bright red spot. Talk about being a hothead!

Now look closely at the photo below of this kite doing his best peregrine falcon impression. When reviewing and sharing his images with us and other raptor experts, it was agreed that the prey item this kite is carrying is a nestling bird of some kind. Which, as Jeff explained, is likely why this kite hit "stooped" (high-speed dive of a falcon) so hastily away from any patrolling adult kingbirds. Everyone's got to eat! More on fancy kite fare below....

5280 Peregrine Watch Update

Back to the the first sighting of the female peregrine that led us to the discovery of the eyrie location!

Alex Reshetniak noticed feathers floating down to street level from the top of the new federal courthouse. Looking up, he saw the peregrine plucking lunch. At the end of this video, as Peter panned over to the entrance of the federal courthouse, the female flew straight west up 19th Street into the 1875 Lawrence Street eyrie location. She carried part of the bird she was eating, dropped it off, and in a few minutes she returned back to the courthouse where she began to preen and nap.

On July 7th, Jeff Wang captured these photos of what we believe to be the female, cruising around the buildings alone in the early morning. She has a very full black "cap", with her malar marks connected with a paler black/gray wash beneath her eyes. Her toes, nicely shown in both photos, are also longer than the males, as females are one-third larger in every raptor family except the New World vultures.

Special thanks to Unico Properties LLC, for being Denver’s premier peregrine eyrie (nest site)!

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

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.

SAVE THE DATE...RAPTOR ID CLASS COMING IN OCTOBER!



Please mark your calendars for our next raptor identification class which will be held at Barr Lake State Park on Saturday morning, October 19th. Details will follow soon in the next edition of Raptor Chronicles. Karen Metz will have her usual collection of custom-curated slides and we'll be bringing approximately eleven live raptors. We're going to shake things up a bit this year, with discussions about habitat and conservation, in addition to tricks and tips for identifying Colorado's magnificent raptors. You're not going to want to miss this!

Collecting Cuisine For Our Kite

During the summer months, we often augment the food our Mississippi Kite eats (chopped mice and wax worms) with free-range grasshoppers, dragonflies, and other hopping delicacies. Alexander Reshetniak is busy capturing grasshoppers which are devouring his vegetable garden, while Mews Manager Savannah Grout is dragooning dragonflies bewitched by her fingernails. Colorado is home to 24 species of dragonflies, and we believe the specimen in Savannah's fancy fingers is a female blue-eyed darner. Dragonflies are pretty awesome aerial predators themselves; some of them have names like "meadowhawk", so we must tip our hats to them as well. We are all busy practicing "prairie to perch" cooking...call us if you have something to contribute to our hungry kite!

Grasshopper photos by Alexander Reshetniak, dragonfly by Anne Price

Slow Birding at Broadmoor Golf Club in Seattle

For our Seattle members and friends, this video at the Broadmoor Golf Club's 11th hole nest was filmed on May 13th when Mom eagle was brooding the small eaglet, and on June 21st when the young eagle was standing.

He or she still has a lot of gray, downy feathers and isn't close to fledging. The weather on May 13th was quite cool, while on the summer solstice it was hot as evidenced by the young eagle panting to keep cool. Birds have no sweat glands, so keeping themselves in a comfortable temperature range requires moving high volumes of air in and out of their respiratory system.

The Madison Park neighborhood has many opportunities for viewing numerous raptor species. This nest has been active for many years and has produced up to three eaglets a summer in during previous breeding seasons...enjoy!

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Commerce City Bald Eagles on the Fourth

The discovery and documentation of peregrine falcons nesting in downtown Denver has diverted Peter's documentation of a variety of nesting raptors in the Brighton/Commerce City/Denver area. This was especially true of the Commerce City bald eagles which he's been filming for years.

This year he missed the moment when the single youngster fledged, however on July 3rd and 4th he found the eaglet within 100 yards of his/her parents and nest. Note that the parents were hidden in the shade of the cottonwood trees (on both days), and from a long distance it took some careful observation for Peter to find them hidden in the dappled sunlight. Once he found them however, he scanned the area and as luck would have it, the fledgling was close by.

The eaglet seem very healthy, with the typical dark brown plumage, black beak and dark eye of a first-year bald eagle. Around 2:17 you'll notice that s/he seems to be trying to regurgitate something stuck in the throat. What s/he is likely doing is moving a pellet or "casting" upwards from the gizzard and into the crop. This pellet contains compressed feathers, fur, and in the case of bald eagles, even very hard fish scales and other indigestible materials from the eagle's last meal. About once every 24 hours it's cast out, acting somewhat like a bottle brush to clean out the alimentary canal of diurnal raptors.

The heat in the early afternoon on both days coupled with the very long telephoto requirement creates a lot of heat distortion in the video. Our apologies, but we thought our viewers would enjoy watching this eagle family continuing their successful addition to Colorado's Front Range Eagle population!

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