[cobirds] Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists (05 Apr 2024) 44 Raptors

Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists
Colorado, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 05, 2024
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	18	75	105
Osprey	2	3	9
Bald Eagle	1	3	33
Northern Harrier	1	2	7
Sharp-shinned Hawk	2	8	24
Cooper's Hawk	3	19	40
American Goshawk	0	1	2
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	0	0
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	7	41	302
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Swainson's Hawk	0	0	0
Ferruginous Hawk	2	2	14
Golden Eagle	0	2	13
American Kestrel	3	39	61
Merlin	0	1	5
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	2
Prairie Falcon	0	0	3
Mississippi Kite	0	0	0
Unknown Accipiter	2	3	4
Unknown Buteo	0	0	0
Unknown Falcon	2	2	3
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	2	2
Total:	44	203	629

Observation start time:	09:00:00
Observation end time:	17:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Dustin Kohler
Observers:	Bill Young, Gary Rossmiller, Ken Christofferson, Lori Morton, Marirosa Donisi, Ryan Gannon, Sammy Korengut , Steve Ryder

Visitors:
We had 37 visitors to the ridge today including a Wolf Watcher that sits on a similar looking ridge in Yellowstone counting the number of wolves that he sees. He plans on coming back to help us on the ridge soon. We also had 2 visitors from Australia who were very interested in seeing American Raptors.

Weather:
With opposite clouds as yesterday, we had nice high clouds in the morning and had blue limitless sky in the afternoon. The sun was shining all day and the wind was a southern wind with gusts up to 18 mph.

Raptor Observations:
Our migrants were just as high as yesterdays, but were moving even faster because of the strong tail winds. It seemed that our migrants were not using the wind like I thought they would. Lots of local raptors were high up and actively flying South against the wind. Both unknown accipiters were far away to the west of straight up, all I could see on both were a long tail and broader wings marking it an accipiter, but they never flapped and were too far away to tell the finer details to tell Cooper's vs Sharp-shin. The unknown Falcons were in the air near some turkey vultures, and looked to be about prairie falcon size. They were falcon wings, but I'm not sure how close they were to the turkey vulture for a size comparison. The unknown Raptor was so high all that was seen was a brown dot moving as high up as we could see. No wings or tail were seen just the brown dot. I assume it was bigger than a kestrel because I doubt a kestrel could be seen so high. We saw a local kestrel, sharp-shin, bald eagle, and at least 6 different red-tailed hawks. One of the red-tails we saw in the morning was leucistic and missing a lot of feathers. I'd imagine it wasn't migrating because of all of the missing flight feathers. We later saw possibly the same leucistic red-tailed on a telephone pole, and with the sun shining on it looked even brighter white.

Non-raptor Observations:
We had a possible first to the ridge with a Bewick's Wren that was both seen and heard. We also had 2 different Rock Wrens singing and one was seen. White-throated swifts were everywhere today. We probably saw over 60 with 40 being in one flock. These super high migrants brought some disappointment as they were thought to be raptors on first glance, but they were fun to watch soar around.

Predictions:
Tomorrow's wind will be 35-55 mph with gusts to 100 mph!!!! We have canceled the count tomorrow because of the danger of that much wind.

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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]

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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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