Driving westward across the Great Plains of North America, one gradually leaves behind the woodlands and rolling terrain of the Midwest and Southeast as the climate becomes drier and the rivers smaller. Eventually, the traveler enters the High Plains Province, where the landscape is flat, the rivers are often dry and the woodlands have disappeared. For those following Interstate 70, this transition is most abrupt between Hays (elevation 2018 feet) and WaKeeney (elevation 2450 feet), Kansas.
While the landscape change is obvious, birders will also notice a change in the primary raptors. The common red-tailed hawks and American kestrels of the Midwest, the Southeast and Eastern Plains have been replaced by prairie falcons, Swainson's hawks (summer) and rough-legged hawks (winter). Bald eagles all but disappear while golden eagles may grace the scene, especially as one approaches the Front Range.
Indeed, east of the mountains, the flat, High Plains yield to dissected terrain once again, the erosive effect of the Arkansas and South Platte River systems, fed by snowmelt from the Continental Divide. Riparian woodlands reappear and, along the Front Range urban corridor, red-tailed hawks and bald eagles rejoin the raptor population.
