Dinosaur Ridge Colorado, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 29, 2011 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 3 135 142 Osprey 0 27 28 Bald Eagle 0 5 38 Northern Harrier 0 10 13 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 41 53 Cooper's Hawk 0 79 92 Northern Goshawk 0 2 3 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 27 27 Red-tailed Hawk 1 140 300 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 2 Swainson's Hawk 0 6 6 Ferruginous Hawk 0 1 11 Golden Eagle 0 2 14 American Kestrel 0 161 193 Merlin 0 5 6 Peregrine Falcon 0 3 3 Prairie Falcon 0 11 20 Mississippi Kite 0 0 0 Unknown Accipiter 0 25 25 Unknown Buteo 0 13 27 Unknown Falcon 0 19 21 Unknown Eagle 0 1 1 Unknown Raptor 0 10 13 Total: 4 723 1038 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:30:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 5.5 hours Official Counter: Cynthia Madsen Observers: Dave Hill, Tom Ryon Visitors: Pete Plage assisted for a half hour on his lunch hour. John, a business colleague of Tom's, spent 1 1/2 hours with us. 5 Hikers Weather: The day begin with 22 mph winds from the west and only about 20% cloud cover. Throughout the day, the winds continued out of the west with gusts up to 34 mph and the cloud cover increased to 90% as the temperature and barometric pressure dropped. Raptor Observations: If yesterday was slow, today was slower with hardly any raptor activity, local or migrating. We had 3 migrating Turkey Vultures and 1 Red-tailed Hawk. Local raptors included 3 Turkey Vultures, 1 Cooper's Hawk, and 2 Red-tailed Hawks. Non-raptor Observations: Other birds seen on the ridge were 2 Spotted Towhees, 3 Scrub Jays, 1 Black-billed Magpie, 2 Bushtits, 2 Western Meadowlarks, 3 Chipping Sparrows, 1 Violet-green Swallow, 1 Townsend Solitaire, 3 Common Ravens, 1 Broad-tailed Hummingbird, 1 Rock Wren, 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler and 1 Northern Flicker. Ten to twenty (hard to keep track) White-throated Swifts performed Spitfire maneuvers, some very close to our heads! ======================================================================== Report submitted by Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory (jeff.bi...@rmbo.org) Dinosaur Ridge information may be found at: http://www.rmbo.org/ 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 the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory from about 9 AM to around 4 PM from the first week of March to the first week of May. 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 post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
