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OTHER WILDLIFE <br />RAPTORS <br />During surveys conducted in May, June and July, 2008, both active and inactive nests for raptors <br />were located. All suitable habitat, which included aspen and Douglas fir habitat were checked for <br />nests. Of the eleven nests checked in the project area only three were active. There was one <br />Cooper's-and one red-tailed hawk at known nest sites in mature aspen stands. There was one new <br />red-tail nest in a small Douglas fir stand above Two Ponds. All nest locations are shown on <br />Figure 1. Nest numbers on Figure 1 correspond to data for each nest site found in Table 1. <br />During these surveys, nests that were found during the 2007 surveys for the E-Seam Methane <br />Drainage area Habitat and Wildlife Studies were checked. Nearly all nests are located in aspen <br />stringers and rarely in large stands of aspen. As shown on Figure 1, most nests were located <br />above Two Ponds in the Sylvester Gulch drainage. <br />One red-tailed hawk nest (nest #1) was located in open mature aspen stand and one (nest #3) in a <br />small Douglas fir stand above Two Ponds. When last checked, on July 3 young had fledged from <br />these nests. These nests were all located near open areas where primary prey species such as <br />ground squirrels are more accessible. <br />The one active Cooper's hawk nest (nest #5) was found in a mature aspen stand and was an <br />inactive nest in 2007. When checked on July 3, there were two downy young in the nest. It will <br />probably be August I before these birds fledge. This aspen stand is dying out and there is limited <br />overhead cover at the nest site. Thus, it was somewhat surprising that the bird chose to nest in a <br />rather open location. <br />No nests were found in oakbrush/mountain shrub. The lack of nests in oakbrush/mountain shrub <br />was not unexpected, as only one great-horned owl nest has been found in this habitat type during <br />seven years of surveys conducted in the North Fork Valley. In that case the nest was located in a <br />large Gambel oak adjacent to an aspen stringer. This lack of nesting by raptors in oakbrush <br />dominated habitat has also been the case at studies conducted by Monarch & Associates <br />elsewhere in Colorado over the past 12+ years. <br />Great-horned owls were observed in the area, but no young were observed with these birds. <br />10