Birds and Nature

I was driving back to Canon City from a long day in Pueblo so I took the scenic, and often more birdie, root via H96.  I spotted this hawk and got these 3 pics that show most of the field marks for this subspecies. These show the snowy white underparts that have scattered rufous feathers, white tail, the pale head and gray cheeks and some of the rufous shoulders and back found on this morph of Ferruginous Hawk.  Not visible are their feathered legs.  SeEtta

I found this light morph Ferruginous Hawk in Pueblo County. This species is listed as 'Special Concern' in Colorado so I always enjoy seeing one of them. SeEtta

Just a series of photos I took a few days ago of the one eyed Ferruginous Hawk as she flew. None good enough to enlarge but I think the series shows how well this clearly handicapped hawk is doing. I did go out to look for her today and she was where I have seen her near the prairie dog town. During the 20 minutes I observed her she only flew out one time as though she was going to go after a prairie dog but did only flew above them and did not attempt to go down towards them. She returned to her perch and not long after an adult Bald Eagle came near. It flew around near her perch appearing to harass a flock of crows and she held her ground even when the eagle flew somewhat close. However she did fly off when the eagle started to fly directly at her. As she flew off the eagle flew also that way though not right on her but maybe following. I did drive around the area for about 15 minutes looking for her but did not see her or the eagle. SeEtta

I had found this female light-morph Ferruginous Hawk 3 days ago in the eastern part of my county here in Colorado. I got some close up photos when she landed on a utility pole right across the road from where I was parked. Though I had looked at this hawk with both my binoculars and when it was further away with my spotting scope, I didn't see that it was missing it's right eye until I uploaded these photos and got a good look at her face. Having only one eye is a major problem for birds as it would significantly affect their depth perception which would make grabbing prey a difficult task for a raptor. I have read of raptors with one functional eye-- one eagle was kept as an educational bird in a raptor center as it ran into things. The other raptor, an Eagle Owl , was released as the raptor center that treated it for injuries with an attached radio transmitter that allowed researches to follow her as she successfully raised a 3 offspring while they noted no d...