Dinosaur Ridge - Bird Conservancy of the Rockies Colorado, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 24, 2019 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 4 98 99 Osprey 0 21 21 Bald Eagle 0 6 18 Northern Harrier 0 6 7 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 41 50 Cooper's Hawk 1 74 80 Northern Goshawk 0 2 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 7 7 Red-tailed Hawk 0 208 301 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Swainson's Hawk 0 9 9 Ferruginous Hawk 0 6 10 Golden Eagle 0 6 9 American Kestrel 0 47 52 Merlin 0 1 1 Peregrine Falcon 0 4 4 Prairie Falcon 0 4 4 Mississippi Kite 0 0 0 Unknown Accipiter 0 9 12 Unknown Buteo 0 4 9 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 1 3 Unknown Raptor 0 8 11 Total: 5 562 709 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:30:00 Observation end time: 13:45:00 Total observation time: 4.25 hours Official Counter: Joyce Commercon Observers: Visitors: No visitors until the last hour, when two hikers, a hiking couple, and a biker each decided, at about the same time, to come up for the view and sit down for a rest; one might have considered them to have been a little bit in the way, but by then, even the local raptors seemed to have disappeared from the sky. Weather: The winds were primarily from the northeast (bft 2-3). Patchy and fairly mobile cloud-cover held at 90-percent (including some thin translucent clouds) until around 1pm MST when a few bigger areas of solid blue opened in the sky, reducing cover to about 80-percent. Near Noon MST, light rain or heavy virga appeared to move south along the western ridges for about an hour. Temperatures stayed near 17-18 C. Visibility was very good. Raptor Observations: Four migrating Turkey Vultures passed north along the Ridge at the very beginning of the watch; even though they moved steadily north, they were, at first, suspected to be locals, except that they were not seen to return by any path in the next hours. The only other migrant was a Cooper’s Hawk that winged its way north up the west-side valley. The local Turkey Vultures were scarce today: only seen a few times, usually not passing the platform, or coming north only to immediately turn back south. Early in the watch, the local Red-tailed Hawks did a fair amount of circling and hunting, as well as a bit of roller-coastering. A local female American Kestrel glided intently north above the Ridge in the morning only to drop straight down not far past the platform; when she rose up again it was alongside a male American Kestrel. She went to circle over Rooney Valley while he began to hunt in the west-side valley. Maybe they were a pair... Non-raptor Observations: Also seen or heard were Chipping Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Black-billed Magpie, White-throated Swift, Violet-green Swallow, Western Meadowlark, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, four Mule deer, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, Rock Wren, Common Raven, and Bushtit. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Matthew Smith ([email protected]) Dinosaur Ridge - Bird Conservancy of the Rockies information may be found at: http://www.birdconservancy.org/ More site information at hawkcount.org: http://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=123 Site Description: Dinosaur Ridge is the only regularly staffed hawkwatch in Colorado and is the best place in the world to see migrating Ferruginous Hawks. Dinosaur Ridge may be the best place in the country to see the rare dark morph of the Broad-winged Hawk (a few are seen each spring). Hawkwatchers who linger long enough may see resident Golden Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks and Prairie Falcons, in addition to migrating Swainson's, Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks, American Kestrels and Turkey Vultures. Peregrine Falcons and Ferruginous Hawks are uncommon; Northern Goshawk is rare but regular. Non-raptor species include Rock Wren, and sometimes Bushtit, Western Bluebird, Sandhill Crane, White-throated Swift, American White Pelican or Dusky Grouse. Birders are always welcome. The hawkwatch is generally staffed by volunteers from Bird Conservancy of the Rockies from about 9 AM to around 3 PM from March 1st to May 7th. Directions to site: >From exit 259 on I-70 towards Morrison, drive south under freeway and take left into first parking lot, the Stegosaurus lot. Follow small signs from the south side of lot to hawkwatch site. The hike starts heading east on an old two-track and quickly turns south onto a trail on the west side of the ridge. When the trail nears the top of the ridge, turn left, head through the gate, and walk to the clearly-visible, flat area at the crest of the ridge. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/6ccd069ef4b53a7c1808cf593fac03b8%40hawkcount.org. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
