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Six more weeks of winter? Flatiron Freddy makes his prediction

Freddy, a top hat-wearing, stuffed yellow-bellied marmot, ziplined into the annual celebration at Chautauqua Park in Boulder in the claws of a wooden raptor.
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BOULDER, Colo. — Punxsutawney Phil and Flatiron Freddy are on the same page.

Hours after the famous Pennsylvania rodent forecasted six more weeks of winter, his Colorado-based marmot counterpart “saw” his shadow and made the same prediction.

Freddy, a top hat-wearing, stuffed yellow-bellied marmot, zip-lined into the annual celebration at Chautauqua Park in Boulder in the claws of a wooden raptor. He’s known for his creative entrances over the eight years the tradition has taken place.

A marmot is tasked with the annual February forecast because groundhogs don’t live in Colorado.

Park rangers in Boulder used Freddy’s arrival with a raptor – a prairie falcon, to be specific – to bring awareness to raptor closures that began Wednesday in the city’s open spaces, including parts of the flatirons. The closures happen from Feb. 1 to July 31 to protect the habitat of nesting falcons and eagles, according to the city’s website.

Raw video | Flatiron Freddy's Groundhog Day prediction


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