March is the month indicating that our volunteer Winter Raptor Surveys for HMANA are over for the season. We have to do one in December, January and February that we devise and follow the same route each time, and since we do 4 survey routes, and it is suggested by HMANA that we do them roughly in the same week of each month, we are busy every week during those months, avoiding days when it snows or severely windy, and having to wait a few days till any heavy snow melts for our safety.
If interested, you can go to the WRS link below, and once you find one of our surveys from the list (or from the sidebar map in Colorado), there is a drop-down menu where you can see all of the results for that survey for the past 2 seasons.
In a way I'm happy it's over as it's a lot of work entering the data into the winter raptor survey website as it usually takes me between 2 and 2.5 hours to enter each report online. https://wrs.hmana.org/public_html/index.php
I have to enter each raptor separately into the website with its location with latitude and longitude; species; number; light or dark morph; adult/immature; male/female; perched/flying/soaring; type of habitat; and I add a description (which was originally required when I started in 2016 but not any longer, of where it was seen, and how far from us each raptor was in meters, and the compass direction). Most of you will not be able to see all the details I have entered, which I suspect they do to protect rare species – only WRS participants like Robert Beauchamp who has a survey in the Nunn Raptor Alley can see them.
1. The most recent survey was in North Boulder. Highlights were a dark morph Ferruginous Hawk flying with a light morph, an intermediate morph streak-breasted type Red-tailed Hawk, a Prairie Falcon, and 8 Golden Eagle (6 adult, 2 juvenile). The total number of raptors was much higher than we usually see – the highest we've had has been 65.
Golden Eagle 8
Prairie Falcon 1
Ferruginous Hawk 6
Great Horned Owl 1 on a nest
Bald Eagle 21
Northern Harrier 5
American Kestrel 11
Red-tailed Hawk 50
Total 103
https://ebird.org/checklist/S162637012 Intermediate morph RT
https://ebird.org/checklist/S162870641 GE
https://ebird.org/checklist/S160877026 FH on last survey
https://ebird.org/checklist/S160873538 GE on last survey
https://ebird.org/checklist/S160937850 Harlan's on last survey
2. The survey before that was the South and East Boulder one, and was disappointing in that we saw only a fraction of raptors we usually see, which is between 44 and 60 raptors. I have no idea why.
Bald Eagle !3
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Total 16
3. The survey we run including Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR, and mainly west of Denver International Airport up to Barr Lake had an average to higher number of raptors. Highlights were 4 Prairie Falcon, a Krider's Hawk, and a Harlan's Hawk
Prairie Falcon 4
Merlin 1
Ferruginous Hawk 6
Cooper's Hawk 1
Northern Harrier 4
American Kestrel 18
Bald Eagle 20
Red-tailed Hawk 40
Total 94
https://ebird.org/checklist/S162134302 Krider's
https://ebird.org/checklist/S162303114 Harlan'
4. The survey we ran between Bennett and Jackson Lake had previously been posted on COBirds. Highlights were the only Rough-leg we saw all season which was a juvenile, 4 Prairie Falcon, 4 Merlin, 1 Harlan's Hawk, and one possible Western/Harlan's intergrade.
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Prairie Falcon 4
Merlin 4
Ferruginous Hawk 3
Northern Harrier 6
Bald Eagle 5
American Kestrel 25
Red-tailed Hawk 7
Total 55
https://ebird.org/checklist/S161476272 Harlan's
We are leading a DFO trip to the Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch on March 16, 2024 for North-bound migrating raptors in flight. If there is enough interest we will continue them at regular intervals.
.
Ajit I Antony and Liza Antony
Central Park, which used to be called Stapleton
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