Colorado, USA
| Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 14, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 24 | 194 | 224 |
| Osprey | 4 | 19 | 25 |
| Bald Eagle | 2 | 8 | 38 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 5 | 10 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 3 | 26 | 42 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 15 | 84 | 105 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 6 | 100 | 361 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 4 | 10 | 10 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 3 | 15 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 4 | 15 |
| American Kestrel | 20 | 203 | 225 |
| Merlin | 0 | 10 | 14 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 6 | 7 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Falcon | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Total: | 81 | 687 | 1113 |
| Observation start time: | 08:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10 hours |
| Official Counter | Dustin Kohler, Emma Riley |
| Observers: | Ali and James Miller, Emma Riley, Janet Peters, Mike Lupini, Natalie Uschner-Arroyo, Pam Moore, Paul Michalec, Ric Olson |
Visitors:
We had 83 visitors to the ridge today. Including my boss and her family! It was very nice getting to meet everyone. We had a family local to Denver area speaking to each other in Russian. They seemed interested in the birds flying past. We also had a couple visitors that are living in Denver, but are from Michigan. They used to visit the Michigan Hawk Watch and were fascinated by our ridge as well. We also had the pleasure of hosting the Nature Keeper's Youth Group. These kids were great spotters, helped me take weather data, and seemed to have a competition for who could spot the most birds. These are the young scientists who helped us out today: Romie Burnett Will Cheever Rowan Cheever Carter Cross Baxter Cross Heather DeCaluwe Bryson DeCaluwe Sierra DeCaluwe Natalia Ekberg Alex Ekberg Stefan Ekberg Doreen Kazura Declan Kazura Krista Kremer Allison Windes Camden Windes
Weather:
A relatively cloudless day full of sunshine. The fairly strong southern wind kept it from being unbearably hot. Good conditions for migrants.
Raptor Observations:
Today's migrants were high, but not as high as I was expecting with a strong southern wind and lots of thermals. These migrants were above us and to the west primarily, but there was more eastern activity than the last couple days. We had a migrating Cooper's hawk dive at a migrating kestrel. The kestrel just dodged quickly like a bull-fighter, and then they both kept going north. Our largest kettle was 6 Turkey Vultures. One of our Swainson's hawks was an intermediate dark morph adult with a dark chest and an even darker bib. Our Goshawk was another immature with an almost too large looking tail. This bird was much bigger than the Cooper's that went through the same flight path a few minutes later. Our unknown falcon was at the edge of the horizon, moving fast, and disappearing and reappearing rapidly. The pointed wing was the only mark we could get. Based off of other activity it was probably a kestrel, but we couldn't even get size based off the rapid changes in its visibility. Other than our acrobatic local Red-tailed Hawks, we had two local (south moving) Northern Harriers, one juvenile Golden Eagle, one adult Golden Eagle, one Swainson's, and two American Kestrels including one female that was heard calling in the last 5 minutes of the day.
Non-raptor Observations:
We had a good amount of swallows today and I think most of them were Northern Rough-winged Swallows. There were also some White-throated Swifts, a few Eurasian Collared Doves, and a very curious White-breasted Nuthatch.
Predictions:
Tomorrow appears to start warm and sunny and shift to rainy and windy in the afternoon. A partial count is likely tomorrow, but the morning should be full of migrants. I look forward to seeing you on the ridge tomorrow, rain jacket in hand.
Report submitted by Official Counter (j.f.peters58@gmail.com)
Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists information may be found at: http://www.dfobirds.org
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
Site Description
Dinosaur Ridge is the only regularly staffed hawk watch in Colorado and is the
best place in the world to see migrating Ferruginous Hawks. Hawk watchers may
see 17 species of migrating raptors; and it is an excellent site to see rare
dark morph buteos including Broad-winged hawk, Swainson’s hawk, Ferruginous
hawk, Rough-legged hawk and Red-tailed Hawk. Other raptors we see include Golden
and Bald Eagles, Northern harrier, Osprey, Peregrine Falcons, Prairie Falcons,
Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks, American Kestrels, Merlin, and Turkey
Vultures. American Goshawk is uncommon but also counted each season. Non-raptor
species include Rock Wren, Bushtit, Western Bluebird, Sandhill Crane,
White-throated Swift, American White Pelican, and Dusky Grouse. Birders of any
skill level are always welcome. The hawk watch at Dinosaur Ridge is staffed by a
Hawk Counter and volunteers from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM from March 1st to May 10th,
weather permitting.
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 hawk watch signs from the
southwest end of the parking lot to the hawk watch 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, and walk to
the flat area at the crest of the ridge. (Distance: 0.56 miles, Elevation gain:
259 feet)
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