Colorado, USA
| Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 21, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 15 | 221 | 251 |
| Osprey | 1 | 27 | 33 |
| Bald Eagle | 4 | 12 | 42 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 6 | 11 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 6 | 36 | 52 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 11 | 103 | 124 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 11 | 16 | 16 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 6 | 111 | 372 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 4 | 17 | 17 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 3 | 15 |
| Golden Eagle | 1 | 6 | 17 |
| American Kestrel | 25 | 261 | 283 |
| Merlin | 1 | 12 | 16 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 2 | 7 | 9 |
| Prairie Falcon | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 1 | 7 | 8 |
| Unknown Buteo | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Unknown Falcon | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Total: | 93 | 860 | 1286 |
| Observation start time: | 07:45:00 |
| Observation end time: | 18:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 10.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Dustin Kohler |
| Observers: | Audrey Anderson, Emma Riley, Mike Kohler, Susie Kohler |
Visitors:
We had 53 visitors to the ridge today including my parents who came out to visit from Missouri. Thank you guys again for helping out all day today.
Weather:
Today started as a very foggy, but otherwise sunny day before turning into a blue sky full of sunshine. Towards the end of the day, it became more partly cloudy. The wind was gusty and out of the Southeast throughout the day.
Raptor Observations:
Our migrants started fairly low to the east or straight up, but then got higher and either remained straight up or were to the west. We had 16 of our 19 species migrate, but saw 17 out of our 19 throughout the day, only missing Rough-legged and Ferruginous Hawks. Almost all of our accipiters migrating had a full crop, at least the closer ones. Our first Bald Eagle was missing a secondary flight feather, and the juvenile Bald Eagle looked very raggedy in terms of missing feathers. One of our migrating Red-tailed Hawks had a white tail, and it's chest was fairly white with a dark belly band. This bird was possibly a White-morph Harlan's, but I am not sure. Our unknown Falcon was probably a Merlin, but too far away to be sure. One of the unknown Buteos was probably a Swainson's Hawk. The other unknown Buteo and Accipiter were too far away to guess which member of their genus they were. In local/ non-migrating news, we had our usual Red-tailed Hawks, but we also had a local Golden Eagle, Swainson's Hawk, Bald Eagle, Cooper's Hawk, Peregrine (seen twice), and two different Northern Harriers.
Non-raptor Observations:
We had 3 Double-crested Cormorants and about 53 Franklin's Gulls migrating a few hours apart. We also had White-throated Swifts, and at least 3 different species (Tree, Barn, Violet-green) of Swallows migrating throughout the day. Other passerines included: Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Black-billed Magpie, Bushtits, Dark-eyed Juncos, Spotted Towhee, Western Meadowlark, Northern Flicker, and a Rock Wren.
Predictions:
Tomorrow looks like a warm, partly cloudy day with winds out of the Northwest. A good sky for viewing migrants, but join Emma up on the ridge to see how that Northwestern wind affects the migrants.
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)
--
--
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
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds
* 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/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 cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/0101018f041d5dd1-0b502a8b-b86f-43af-aa63-58a3f887bb3c-000000%40us-west-2.amazonses.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment