Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
This is a new raptor migration site identified and designated so only in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch. To get to the site which is along Lookout Mountain Rd. in Golden, enter either Windy Saddle Park or Mount Zion into Google Maps on your favorite navigation app, or enter the coordinates 39.7368,-105.2454. From the parking lot ascend the stone steps to the watch site.
| Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 12, 2024 | |||
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 26 |
| Osprey | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Northern Harrier | 0 | 7 | 19 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 | 3 | 50 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 0 | 0 | 79 |
| American Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 15 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 2 | 14 | 160 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Swainson's Hawk | 0 | 0 | 36 |
| Ferruginous Hawk | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 3 | 11 |
| American Kestrel | 1 | 1 | 139 |
| Merlin | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Prairie Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Mississippi Kite | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| Total: | 4 | 28 | 575 |
| Observation start time: | 12:15:00 |
| Observation end time: | 14:30:00 |
| Total observation time: | 2.25 hours |
| Official Counter | Ajit Antony |
| Observers: | Liza Antony |
Visitors:
A young man who was a climber and an independent filmmaker was curious what we were doing. I explained and told him about hawkcount.org which he immediately placed on his phone – I told him how he could find reports of any hawk watch, any year, any month, any day. I showed him a Townsend's Solitaire through the scope which he thought was beautiful.
Weather:
The prediction was for SW winds changing to West at noon, with strong gusts to 16 mph later. The winds were light with gusts to Level 5 on the Beaufort scale (19-24 mph) for the 1st 2 hours followed by variable winds, good visibility to 25 km with light haziness, cloud cover 20>30%.
Raptor Observations:
We decided to go up in case there were some raptors migrating further West of us (as GE are known to fly over the the continental divide) which could be pushed in our direction by the West winds. Very few raptors migrating past this site today. The 1st was an SS at 12:26 PM struggling mightily against the very strong wind gusts, turning and twisting, diving twice to get out of the wind (presumably). The Bird of the Day correctly identified by Liza, was a rufous (intermediate) morph adult RT, Western subspecies, except it had a red dorsal tail with only a single narrow subterminal band (multiple narrow bands with or without a wider subterminal band are more common) which Brian Wheeler describes in "Raptors of Western North America" 2003, page 322. This is the 7th dark/intermediate morph migrant raptor we've seen this fall – Dinosaur Ridge in spring 2024 reported 9. Non-migrant raptors: GE 3, all to the West– 1 without evident molt, another molting its outer secondaries, and a 3rd molting multiple secondaries – so from the molt pattern we knew they were 3 different GE. RT 5. AK male chased by a Magpie, then kiting, hovering, and hunting all around us.
Non-raptor Observations:
Townsend's Solitaire 1, Mountain Chickadee 1, Black-billed Magpie 3, Steller's Jay 1, American Crow 27 (22 flying West together) Common Raven 7, Junco 2.
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aiantony@earthlink.net)
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]
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