Tuesday, 21 April 2026

Re: [cobirds] Digest for cobirds@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 2 topics

Very impressive Hugh Kingery On Monday, April 20, 2026 at 07:13:32 AM MDT, cobirds@googlegroups.com <cobirds@googlegroups.com> wrote:     cobirds@googlegroups.com           Google Groups     Topic digest View all topics            *   Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists (19 Apr 2026) 165 Raptors - 1 Update          *   Save the Aurora Reservoir from Fracking - 1 Update         Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists (19 Apr 2026) 165 Raptors      reports@hawkcount.org: Apr 20 04:15AM       Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists Golden, Colorado, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 19, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------   Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 14 126 153 Osprey 7 32 38 Bald Eagle 1 11 24 Northern Harrier 0 20 32 Sharp-shinned Hawk 14 85 106 Cooper's Hawk 13 131 183 American Goshawk 0 0 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0 Broad-winged Hawk 10 18 18 Red-tailed Hawk 8 160 408 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Swainson's Hawk 1 14 14 Ferruginous Hawk 0 6 15 Golden Eagle 0 1 8 American Kestrel 93 403 542 Merlin 0 2 5 Peregrine Falcon 0 1 3 Prairie Falcon 0 2 4 Mississippi Kite 0 0 0 Unknown Accipitrine 1 9 15 Unknown Buteo 1 2 5 Unknown Falcon 1 3 4 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 1 3 4   Total: 165 1029 1582 ----------------------------------------------------------------------   Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 18:30:00 Total observation time: 10.5 hours   Official Counter: Emma Riley, Soren Zappia , Soren Zappia   Observers: Marina Prado-Echeagaray   Visitors: It was a lively day on the ridge today with 23 visitors that came by as well as a group from Aiken Audubon, one of our partners! We really enjoyed getting to share migration with everyone that visited today.   Thank you to Andrew Jensen, Lauren Friesen, and Julie Eyden for volunteering their time today.       Weather: Today was a classic spring day on the ridge. We had warm temperatures that got up to about 25 degrees Celsius, winds that varied in direction but predominantly came from the E/NE, and virtually no cloud cover. A haze was present all day making distant birds difficult to see.   Raptor Observations: Today was our biggest day of the season so far! Migrants started coming through in the 0800 MST hour and continued through the 1800 hour, making for a 10+ hour day of birds. We had our highest count of Broad-winged Hawks, Osprey, and American Kestrels today.   The day started with birds already being distant over the W ridge and continued with that pattern for most of the day. Morning highlights included a small kettle of 3 Broad-winged Hawks, including one dark-morph!, over Mt Morrison. Osprey were seen E, W, and just N of us today. Migration slowed down during the peak of the day before picking back up in the early evening. A kettle of 10 Turkey Vultures showed up just S of the count site with 3 American Kestrels in the 1600 MST hour. The Turkey Vultures moved N before coming back S about 15 minutes later, but they put us onto the first of a great push of American Kestrels. Our late day Kestrel push was low over the W ridge with 2-3 birds being seen in one field of view at a time. As we counted endless American Kestrels, a low buteo was spotted just W of the ridge. This bird ended up being a beautiful adult Broad-winged Hawk that circled low directly overhead of us, surely giving us the best looks of the season for this species.   Warblers are slowly showing up at the site with Yellow-rumped Warblers and a few calling warblers in-flight that we weren't able to get a solid ID on. We also had a female Common Merganser come over as we were leaving the site for the evening.   Non-raptor Observations: Common Merganser 1, White-throated Swift 64, Broad-tailed Hummingbird 3, Mourning Dove 2, Double-crested Cormorant 11, American White Pelican 3, Say's Phoebe 1, Steller's Jay 1, Woodhouse's Scrub Jay 1, Black-billed Magpie 5, Common Raven 4, Black-capped Chickadee 1, Violet-green Swallow 2, American Bushtit 4, Rock Wren 1, European Starling 1, Pine Siskin 2, Spotted Towhee 2, Western Meadowlark 2, Common Grackle 3, Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 4, warbler sp. 3   Predictions: Temperatures will be higher tomorrow but cloud cover is predicted (fingers crossed) for the afternoon. Winds continue out of the E. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Official Counter of the day shown above (dinoridgehw@gmail.com) Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists information may be found at: www.dinosaurridgehawkwatch.org     More site information at hawkcount.org: https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=123 Count data submitted via Trektellen.org - Project info at: https://trektellen.org/count/view/4515/20260419   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, and American White Pelican. Birders of any skill level are always welcome. The hawk watch at Dinosaur Ridge is staffed by Hawk Counter(s) and volunteers from March through early May.   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)    Back to top    Save the Aurora Reservoir from Fracking      CaoimhĂ­n Perkins <ksperkins59@gmail.com>: Apr 19 03:10PM -0700       Hi all. There is a final hearing on Tuesday over a very large fracking project that will be placed near the Aurora Reservoir. I'm sure this would affect the drinking water of members of this email list and would in general affect the wildlife we all care about at the reservoir. Link is here for a zoom link and some other info to attend the virtual hearing: State Sunlight-Long Final Re-Hearing - Save The Aurora Reservoir <https://savetheaurorareservoir.org/event/state-sunlight-long-final-re-hearing/>   Best, Caoimhin    Back to top    You received this digest because you're subscribed to updates for this group. You can change your settings on the  group membership page .    To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it send an email to  cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com .   -- -- 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 visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1833003498.827060.1776724468962%40mail.yahoo.com.

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