Subject: Dinosaur Ridge fall Hawk Watch 2022, A message from Ajit Antony
Hi hawk watchers and hawk enthusiasts. You're probably puzzled as to why you got a report for August 19th 2022 from Dinosaur Ridge when it isn't spring yet. Here's the explanation. I am a hawk watcher from NY with 35 years of hawk counting experience at three different watches who just moved to Denver and was curious if there could be a significant migration through this site in fall as there seems to be no geographic feature preventing one. In NY my wife Liza helped me at Hook Mountain for the spring watch for the past 2 years (which had had only a fall watch for 50 years, and was one of the spots I counted at) where we demonstrated an excellent spring watch with records or near-records for almost all species on the the Eastern Flyway; as well as the I-84 Overlook in fall for the past 2 years (which had not had a regular fall watch for 30+ years), where we had 27 Golden Eagle in 2021 including 8 migrant GE on one day! You can see our results at both watches on Hawkcount.org or the latest HMANA's Hawk Migration Studies on page 30 https://view.publitas.com/hmana-1/hawk-migration-studies-vol-47-no-2/page/32-33 I discussed doing something similar at Dinosaur Ridge with Carol when we met her at the watch this past spring, and an offer that my wife Liza and I would go up on potentially favorable days this fall and see if we could demonstrate a good migration. She gave us the go-ahead. I intuit that hawks should move south here in fall on North and East based winds because of the Front Range adjacent. NW winds are the most favorable overall for most hawk watches and we will explore this wind direction too. There will be a learning curve for us to find which would be the best wind, which compass point in relation to the hawk watch, how high the hawks fly, as well as what time of day, and we will intentionally go a few hours to explore days with "unfavorable" winds too. You never know what we'll learn! If any of you wants to help us, we would be happy to have you. Even if you don't know a lot about hawk ID, another pair of eyes to find hawks we might otherwise miss, is useful. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that the greater the number of observers at a site, the greater the number of hawks seen. We can help you improve your ID skills. I have trained many over the decades. Of course if you are experienced, you would be especially welcome, for you can teach us the finer points in the ID of species we don't see in NY. If you want to know the days we are planning to be at the watch email me at [email protected] It's early in the season but we thought we'd see what's migrating based on sightings in previous years in fall compiled by Carol and Steve and shared very kindly with me. 9/4/21 ESE SW4 9/7/20 WNW/ESE AK2 9/12/20 E RT3 8/5/18 S-SE SW4, FH3, AK2 9/3/18 SW/SE. NH1, CH4, RT4, SW9, AK6, PG1 9/15/19 SW and SE SS1, CH6, SW14, AK3 9/19/20 SE BW2, SW5, AK1 8/31/19 NE CH3, RT3, SW2, GE2, AK25 9/2/18 N NH1, SS1,CH8, RT3, SW26, AK25, PG1 9/8/19 NE and SE OS1, SS1, CH9, RT6, SW5, AK16, ML1, PF1 9/9/18 NW and SE OS2, NH1, SS1, CH10, RT6, SW3, AK5 10/21/18 NW SS1, FH1 Preliminary Conclusions from this limited though valuable data: Since there were 25 AK on 8/31/19 and 26 SW on 9/2/18 the migration probably started at least a week before the end of August. So I will start counting on appropriate winds by mid- or late-August. North-based winds seem to be the best overall for the largest numbers of Hawks. The first two weeks in September seems to be the best for Swainson's Hawks with 26 on 9/2/18 on North winds and 14 on 9/15/19 on SW/SE Winds. 3 FH seen on 8/5/18 and not on any other time. According to the Merlin app the numbers of FH in Denver increase from September on, peaking in December through March, so my guess is if we (can – weather permitting) count later in November and December we will see more FH; perhaps comparable to spring numbers. The same with Rough-legged Hawk which peak in November and December per Merlin. Ajit Antony David Hill Arapahoe County -- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en * All posts should be signed with the poster's full name and city. Include bird species and location in the subject line when appropriate * Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/CFO/Membership/ --- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/bbda8f8a-75fa-4e24-85ec-7d93eeb46f98n%40googlegroups.com.
