Pueblo Christmas Bird & Ferruginous Hawk

The Pueblo City Christmas Bird Count was held on Dec 31. We found somewhere around 80 or so species, not nearly as high as the species found on the Pueblo Reservoir Count which was around 125. Certainly that count has the advantageous of a very large body of water with many ducks and other waterfowl plus the surrounding open lands on the Colo State Park and State Wildlife areas. But the Pueblo City count is good for it's focus on counting all those common birds that are found in the developed residential and industrial areas found around cities--in terms of the purpose of the Christmas Bird Counts, it is the counting of these more common species that is as important as any of the rarer birds.

On the eastern and southern parts of the Pueblo City CBC count circle there is farm and some range land, places where a number of hawks are found. I saw this light Ferruginous Hawk near the Arkansas River. SeEtta