I visited Last Chance again today and chatted with a nearbyrancher I
got to know during my
atlas work on his spread. He was one of the heroes of the Last Chance
fire, having disc'd
fire lines for hours. He saved his neighbors, then barely stopped the
fire only a few yards
from his own home.
He told me that while inspecting the land right after the fire, he
came upon a stock
tank, full of water, some ashes, a few dead Starlings and the
carcasses of two "hawks." (Out there Swainson's Hawks predominate in
the summer hawk department). I had not heard of this behavior before,
but guessed that they had dived into the stock tank in desperation
amid the flaming fields and the smoke. The thought that a "stock tank
ladder" could have saved them crossed my mind, until I sadly realized
that nothing would have helped. Oxygen was probably depleted from the
air, among other hazards.
Has anyone heard of this kind of avian response to a prairie fire?
Joe Roller, Denver
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