Colorado, USA
| Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 26, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 6 | 273 | 303 |
| Osprey | 0 | 38 | 44 |
| Bald Eagle | 1 | 14 | 44 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 14 | 19 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 8 | 72 | 88 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 4 | 160 | 181 |
| American Goshawk | 1 | 8 | 9 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 3 | 89 | 89 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 7 | 145 | 406 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 0 | 36 | 36 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 4 | 16 |
| Golden Eagle | 1 | 8 | 19 |
| American Kestrel | 17 | 392 | 414 |
| Merlin | 0 | 15 | 19 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 10 | 12 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 1 | 12 | 13 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 5 | 6 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| Total: | 49 | 1304 | 1730 |
| Observation start time: | 08:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 14:45:00 |
| Total observation time: | 6.75 hours |
| Official Counter | Dustin Kohler |
| Observers: | Chris Gearhart, Dave Hill, Guillaume Stordeur, Joyce Michael, Karl Brummert , Natalie Uschner-Arroyo |
Visitors:
We had 41 visitors to the ridge today including 5 ladies in a hiking club. Their birding friend was out of town, so they said that they will be back with this friend. Another guy said he would come back and bring his wife and daughter.
Weather:
Today started a fairly cloudless and warm day. The wind started from a Northwestern direction but switched to West and Northeast throughout the day. At about 11:15 MST there was rain to the South, and at about 14:30 MST wind picked up and the rain started. We called count early because of close thunder overhead, the storm and/ or rain is to continue the rest of the day and turn into a winter weather advisory tomorrow.
Raptor Observations:
Our migrants were either very close overhead or miles away. The medium distance that we usually see migrants, didn't have any migrants today. The Northwestern wind kept our smaller migrants (kestrel, sharp-shin, cooper's) mostly stayed low to the ridge or the other ridges, but our other migrants were generally higher up, out of unaided vision. The Goshawk was molting from its juvenile plumage to adult plumage. This particular bird had a swallowtail look as, its middle rectrices were still growing out. The wings looked like adult wings, but there were some juvenile feathers on the chest. The unknown accipiter was either an immature Cooper's or an immature Goshawk. The flaps were strong and the tail seemed almost extra long suggesting a goshawk, but the wings seemed less bulky and there was a lot of head projection suggesting a cooper's. After consulting many books we still could not get a definite ID. The Broad-wings were very far away their wings looked like accipiters, but with very little tail. This combined with the three in a kettle together suggested Broad-wings. Local news was pretty slow. We had a local Cooper's hawks and several Red-tails including one who was parading around with a big vole.
Non-raptor Observations:
We saw a Mule and an Elk in velvet as their antlers are growing back. We also saw a big bumblebee with a thick orange stripe on its abdomen. There were a lot of Swifts playing in the wind, and three types of swallows (Tree, Violet-Green, and Northern Rough-winged). There was also a red-breasted nuthatch, blue-grey gnatcatchers, rock wren and our usual spotted towhees and western meadowlarks.
Predictions:
There is a Winter storm warning from 3 am Saturday to 6 am Sunday. With 4-12 inches of snow and precipitation all day. Tomorrow is likely to be canceled.
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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