Dinosaur Ridge - Bird Conservancy of the Rockies Colorado, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 13, 2017 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 0 26 26 Osprey 0 2 2 Bald Eagle 0 4 13 Northern Harrier 0 0 0 Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 16 26 Cooper's Hawk 3 30 35 Northern Goshawk 0 0 0 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 0 1 1 Red-tailed Hawk 3 42 222 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Swainson's Hawk 1 3 3 Ferruginous Hawk 0 2 7 Golden Eagle 0 0 3 American Kestrel 0 22 34 Merlin 0 0 0 Peregrine Falcon 0 4 6 Prairie Falcon 0 2 3 Mississippi Kite 0 0 0 Unknown Accipiter 0 2 6 Unknown Buteo 1 8 23 Unknown Falcon 0 4 7 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 1 2 9 Total: 9 170 426 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 13:30:00 Total observation time: 5.5 hours Official Counter: Joyce Commercon Observers: Bill Wuerthele Visitors: Two men out hiking with a young child and a dog stopped by early for the view and asked about the raptor watch, but most visitors came only for the view. Weather: The warm, sunny day started with a clear blue sky that eventually attained about 20 percent scattered cloud-cover, mostly to the south and west. Winds were from the east, increasing from bft 2 in the morning to bft 4 in the afternoon. Temperatures rose from 13 C to 22 C. Visibility was acceptable but haze in the valleys increased during the day. The Denver basin’s brown haze appeared to move south along the eastern side of Green Mountain into the southeastern valley; quarry dust raised by the wind hung noticeably in the western valley in the afternoon. Raptor Observations: There was no particular pattern to where the migrants passed along the ridges or valleys today, although most came along the Ridge or the western valley. The general height-of-flight did increase throughout day, making it ever more difficult to spot migrants against the blue. The second hour of the watch opened nicely with three Cooper's Hawks heading north within about a half-hour period. The highlight occurred near 10:00am MST when a Swainson's Hawk, a dark-morph adult with a fully dark chest and belly, passed fairly close and directly over the HawkWatch platform on its way north. All the Red-tailed Hawk migrants were juveniles. A local, adult Red-tailed Hawk was observed to perform several displays of roller-coaster flight, apparently for its partner; at one point, this pair swooped past the platform so closely that we could hear the wind against their wings. A local, juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was seen in Rooney Valley a few times. A local, male American Kestrel was spotted perched on a powerline on the east side of the Ridge; it drove off a second local, male American Kestrel that had dared perch on a nearby line. One of these male kestrels also attacked and flew circles around a local adult Red-tailed Hawk as it flew up Rooney Valley. Non-raptor Observations: A noisy group of Bushtits hung around the platform for a few hours in the morning. An American White Pelican was spotted west of SubPeak as it flew south. Also seen or heard were Spotted Towhee, Western Meadowlark, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Say's Phoebe, Black-billed Magpie, Northern Flicker, Townsend's Solitaire, Common Raven, Canyon Wren, White-throated Swift, a gull species, American Crow, and Violet-green Swallow. Ten Mule deer were seen in Rooney Valley at the base of the Ridge. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (jeff.bi...@birdconservancy.org) Dinosaur Ridge - Bird Conservancy of the Rockies information may be found at: http://www.birdconservancy.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 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 post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/46e1035098170237e9b8c835e3b9e5a7%40www.hawkcount.org. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
