Dinosaur Ridge - Bird Conservancy of the Rockies Colorado, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 11, 2020 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 0 0 Osprey 0 0 0 Bald Eagle 1 6 6 Northern Harrier 0 0 0 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 1 1 Cooper's Hawk 0 1 1 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 0 Red-tailed Hawk 4 32 32 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Swainson's Hawk 0 0 0 Ferruginous Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 2 2 American Kestrel 0 1 1 Merlin 0 1 1 Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0 Prairie Falcon 0 1 1 Mississippi Kite 0 0 0 Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0 Unknown Buteo 2 3 3 Unknown Falcon 0 0 0 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 1 1 1 Total: 8 49 49 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 4 hours Official Counter: Joyce Commercon Observers: Jim Low Visitors: Austin Stokes, from Massachusetts, arrived early at about 7:30am MST, collecting his 15th HawkWatch site and hoping to see some western-specific raptors. Jim Low also came up a bit later and helped spot. Their help was appreciated since many of the raptors spotted, migrant or local, were rather distant. One hiker that stopped by did express an interest in what we were doing and seeing. Weather: Sunny blue skies with minimal cloud-cover (20-30%) that rested mostly along the horizons until after noon. Warm, with temperatures rising from 12 C to 15.5 C. Winds were from the East and Southeast at a fairly steady bft 3. Western Ridges had a fair amount of patchy snow. Visibility was generally about 10 km, but visibility seemed less than 10 km directly to the west due to an apparent haze past the western ridges. Raptor Observations: Nearly all of the migrants were along or on the far side of the western ridges. These distant identifications were further hampered especially in late morning by a haze that seemed to hang just past these ridges. A Sub-adult Bald Eagle, possibly a Sub-adult II (in its third-year), was the first migrant of the morning along these ridges, and although rather distant, it was luckily not obscured by any haze. One of the Red-tailed Hawk migrants was almost dismissed as a local when it was spotted circling up over I70 just after noon, but then a true local RTHA dove at it with such violence that it almost winged it; the shaken RTHA stopped circling upward and headed north immediately. Non-raptor Observations: After noon, a Common Raven that had landed in the dead tree just southwest of the platform was observed to hop about inspecting the bare branches and then testing them; it eventually broke off two medium-sized specimens (each less than a foot long) and proceeded to carry them in its beak to another bare-branched tree just to the north, where it could be heard again breaking off branches. Soon this same Raven flew, with an empty beak, south along the Ridge only to return north carrying a decent-sized, lightly-branched stick. Apparently it had finally found just the right one. Several bluebirds moved north along the Ridge today; at least one was seen to be a Mountain Bluebird and a couple were identified by their chirruping as Western Bluebirds. Also seen or heard today were Townsend's Solitaire, American Robin, House Finch, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, Slate-colored Junco, Bushtit, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and Black-billed Magpie. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Matthew Smith (matt.sm...@birdconservancy.org) 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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/55b4147e031a2a6e305ba1a1cf3bb802%40hawkcount.org.
