Wednesday, 24 August 2022

[cobirds] Volunteer with Boulder Audubon: AV Coordinator

AV Coordinator Needed for Monthly Programs

Boulder County Audubon Society is looking for a volunteer who can run our audio-visual equipment at our in-person monthly meetings on the fourth Tuesday of each month, September-November 2022 and January-May 2023. The time commitment would be from 6:30-9pm during the meetings.

Starting in September, BCAS will be presenting our monthly programs to an in-person audience simultaneously with a Zoom audience. The AV Coordinator will work with our Zoom coordinator to make sure everyone can hear, see, and ask questions.

Please consider volunteering for this essential role in bringing our lively speakers program to a broader audience! We have some great programs lined up already, including a September program on Colorado Parks and Wildlife's work on some of Colorado's rare birds and an October program titled "Spider Fact and Fancy".

If you are interested or have any questions about what this role would entail, please contact Carron Meaney at carron@boulderaudubon.org and Carol Kampert carolk@boulderaudubon.org.

Thank you!

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Tuesday, 23 August 2022

[cobirds] Bird Conservancy of the Rockies - Barr Banding Report, 8/23/22

Hello CoBirders!

The fall banding season at Barr Lake has begun!  Weather permitting, we will be out at Barr 6 mornings a week for the next 9 weeks, monitoring the migratory songbirds passing through our area.

We had a lovely first morning, catching a total of 68 birds - 63 new and 5 returns from prior seasons.  Mostly summer residents, including 35 Yellow Warblers and 18 House Wrens.  I think the Yellows are at their most beautiful at this time of year - most of the adults have completed their post-breeding molt and have perfect, bright new feathers - while the House Wrens are a ragtag crew - most in some stage of molt, replacing some combination of body, wing and/or tail feathers.  Here's a breakdown of today's captures:

Mourning Dove - 2
Traill's Flycatcher 1 (probably a Willow)
Dusky Flycatcher 1
House Wren 17 new, 1 banded 2020
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 32 new, 1 banded 2021, 2 banded 2020
Common Yellowthroat 2
Brewer's Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 4 new, 1 banded 2018 (presumably has spent its life at Barr, but this is the first time it has been recaught.....)

If you'd like to enjoy fall birds up close and personal, please come visit!  Click here to make a reservation - we are offering one-hour slots (up to 15 visitors at a time) from 7:30-8:30 most weekdays (closed Mondays), and 8-9, 9-10, and 10-11 on weekends.  There is space this week!  We look forward to seeing many of you during the season!

Meredith McBurney
Bander, Barr Lake Station
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

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[cobirds] Snowy egret paddling Arapahoe county

I glanced at my pond this afternoon and was surprised to see a snowy egret paddling across the pond. I wish I had seen it get into the water. It took off shortly after video ends and went to the side of the pond. Common behavior? I've never seen it before.

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Monday, 22 August 2022

[cobirds] Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists (22 Aug 2022) 2 Raptors

Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists
Colorado, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Aug 22, 2022
SpeciesDay's CountMonth TotalSeason Total
Black Vulture000
Turkey Vulture000
Osprey000
Bald Eagle000
Northern Harrier000
Sharp-shinned Hawk000
Cooper's Hawk111
Northern Goshawk000
Red-shouldered Hawk000
Broad-winged Hawk111
Red-tailed Hawk000
Rough-legged Hawk000
Swainson's Hawk011
Ferruginous Hawk000
Golden Eagle000
American Kestrel011
Merlin000
Peregrine Falcon000
Prairie Falcon000
Mississippi Kite000
Unknown Accipiter000
Unknown Buteo000
Unknown Falcon000
Unknown Eagle000
Unknown Raptor000
Total:244


Observation start time: 08:15:00
Observation end time: 12:30:00
Total observation time: 4.75 hours
Official CounterAjit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony


Weather:
Light cloud cover 35%>15%>30%, winds Level 2-4 from SE>ENE, temperature 24-30°C, humidity 35-27%, barometer 29.92, clear visibility to 16 km.

Raptor Observations:
The first local raptor a TV was seen only by 8:53 a.m. EST. The first likely migrant was an American Kestrel at 9:21 a.m. seen high to the west, which circled and then flew North - not counted. A Swainson's Hawk at 11:13 a.m. seen to the west circled and then flew North,so not counted. The first countable migrants were an RT and a CH at 11:20 a.m. seen extremely high to the west. Non-migrant Raptors: RT 5 including a dark morph, TV 9.

Non-raptor Observations:
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1, Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay 2, Spotted Towhee 1, House Wren 1, American Crow 1, Common Raven 2, Black-capped Chickadee 1, Barn Swallow 2. Species heard: Northern Flicker, Broad-tailed Hummingbird.

Predictions:
Similar weather predicted, so could be similar to today.


Report submitted by DAVID HILL ()
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 hawkwatch in Colorado and is the
best place in the world to see migrating Ferruginous Hawks. Dinosaur Ridge may
be the best place in the country to see the rare dark morph of the Broad-winged
Hawk (a few are seen each spring). Hawkwatchers who linger long enough may see
resident Golden Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks and Prairie Falcons, in addition to
migrating Swainson's, Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks, American Kestrels and
Turkey Vultures. Peregrine Falcons and Ferruginous Hawks are uncommon; Northern
Goshawk is rare but regular. Non-raptor species include Rock Wren, and sometimes
Bushtit, Western Bluebird, Sandhill Crane, White-throated Swift, American White
Pelican or Dusky Grouse. Birders of any skill level are always welcome.
HawkWatch at Dinosaur Ridge is generally staffed by volunteers from about 9 AM
to around 3 PM from March 1st to May 7th.

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 small signs from the
southwest end of lot to the hawkwatch 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, head through the
gate, and walk to the clearly-visible, flat area at the crest of the ridge.
(Distance: 0.56 miles, Elevation gain: 259 feet)

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[cobirds] Re: Colorado's Amish Bird watcher

Hi all

I don't know Susan, but the way John describes her, I know I'd also be a friend of hers. She sounds like a wonderful person and our birding community  will miss her.

Bob Righter
Denver CO

Sunday, 21 August 2022

[cobirds] Dinosaur Ridge Fall Hawk Watch 2022

Subject: Dinosaur Ridge fall Hawk Watch 2022, A message from Ajit Antony

Hi hawk watchers and hawk enthusiasts.

You're probably puzzled as to why you got a report for August 19th 2022 from Dinosaur Ridge when it isn't spring yet. Here's the explanation.

I am a hawk watcher from NY with 35 years of hawk counting experience at three different watches who just moved to Denver and was curious if there could be a significant migration through this site in fall as there seems to be no geographic feature preventing one.

In NY my wife Liza helped me at Hook Mountain for the spring watch for the past 2 years (which had had only a fall watch for 50 years, and was one of the spots I counted at) where we demonstrated an excellent spring watch with records or near-records for almost all species on the the Eastern Flyway; as well as the I-84 Overlook in fall for the past 2 years (which had not had a regular fall watch for 30+ years), where we had 27 Golden Eagle in 2021 including 8 migrant GE on one day! You can see our results at both watches on Hawkcount.org or the latest HMANA's Hawk Migration Studies on page 30 https://view.publitas.com/hmana-1/hawk-migration-studies-vol-47-no-2/page/32-33

I discussed doing something similar at Dinosaur Ridge with Carol when we met her at the watch this past spring, and an offer that my wife Liza and I would go up on potentially favorable days this fall and see if we could demonstrate a good migration. She gave us the go-ahead.

I intuit that hawks should move south here in fall on North and East based winds because of the Front Range adjacent. NW winds are the most favorable overall for most hawk watches and we will explore this wind direction too. There will be a learning curve for us to find which would be the best wind, which compass point in relation to the hawk watch, how high the hawks fly, as well as what time of day, and we will intentionally go a few hours to explore days with "unfavorable" winds too. You never know what we'll learn!

If any of you wants to help us, we would be happy to have you. Even if you don't know a lot about hawk ID, another pair of eyes to find hawks we might otherwise miss, is useful. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that the greater the number of observers at a site, the greater the number of hawks seen. We can help you improve your ID skills. I have trained many over the decades. Of course if you are experienced, you would be especially welcome, for you can teach us the finer points in the ID of species we don't see in NY. If you want to know the days we are planning to be at the watch email me at aiantony@earthlink.net

It's early in the season but we thought we'd see what's migrating based on sightings in previous years in fall compiled by Carol and Steve and shared very kindly with me. 

9/4/21 ESE     SW4

9/7/20 WNW/ESE     AK2

9/12/20 E     RT3

8/5/18 S-SE     SW4, FH3, AK2

9/3/18 SW/SE.     NH1, CH4, RT4, SW9, AK6, PG1

9/15/19 SW and SE     SS1, CH6, SW14, AK3

9/19/20 SE     BW2, SW5, AK1

8/31/19 NE     CH3, RT3, SW2, GE2, AK25

9/2/18 N     NH1, SS1,CH8, RT3, SW26, AK25, PG1

9/8/19 NE and SE     OS1, SS1, CH9, RT6, SW5, AK16, ML1, PF1

9/9/18 NW and SE     OS2, NH1, SS1, CH10, RT6, SW3, AK5

10/21/18 NW     SS1, FH1

Preliminary Conclusions from this limited though valuable data:

Since there were 25 AK on 8/31/19 and 26 SW on 9/2/18 the migration probably started at least a week before the end of August. So I will start counting on appropriate winds by mid- or late-August.

North-based winds seem to be the best overall for the largest numbers of Hawks.

The first two weeks in September seems to be the best for Swainson's Hawks with 26 on 9/2/18 on North winds and 14 on 9/15/19 on SW/SE Winds.

3 FH seen on 8/5/18 and not on any other time. According to the Merlin app the numbers of FH in Denver increase from September on, peaking in December through March, so my guess is if we (can – weather permitting) count later in November and December we will see more FH; perhaps comparable to spring numbers. The same with Rough-legged Hawk which peak in November and December per Merlin.

Ajit Antony


David Hill

Arapahoe County

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[cobirds] Dinosaur Ridge fall hawk watch 2022

Hi hawk watchers and hawk enthusiasts.

You're probably puzzled as to why you got a report for August 19th 2022 from Dinosaur Ridge when it isn't spring yet. Here's the explanation.

I am a hawk watcher from NY with 35 years of hawk counting experience at three different watches who just moved to Denver and was curious if there could be a significant migration through this site in fall as there seems to be no geographic feature preventing one.

In NY my wife Liza helped me at Hook Mountain for the spring watch for the past 2 years (which had had only a fall watch for 50 years, and was one of the spots I counted at) where we demonstrated an excellent spring watch with the next highest or highest for almost all species on the Eastern Flyway in 2021; as well as the I-84 Overlook in fall for the past 2 years (which had not had a regular fall watch for 30+ years), where we had 27 Golden Eagle in 2021 including 8 migrant GE on one day! You can see our results at both watches on Hawkcount.org or the latest HMANA's Hawk Migration Studies on page 30

https://view.publitas.com/hmana-1/hawk-migration-studies-vol-47-no-2/page/32-33 

I discussed doing something similar at Dinosaur Ridge with Carol Cwiklinski when we met her at the watch this past spring and after we moved here 6 weeks ago, and made an offer that my wife Liza and I would go up on potentially favorable days this fall and see if we could demonstrate a good migration. She gave us the go-ahead.

I intuit that hawks should move south here in fall on North and East based winds because of the Front Range adjacent. NW winds are the most favorable overall for most hawk watches and we will explore this wind direction too. There will be a learning curve for us to find which would be the best wind, which compass point in relation to the hawk watch, how high the hawks fly, as well as what time of day, and we will intentionally go a few hours to explore days with "unfavorable" winds too. You never know what we'll learn! 

If any of you wants to help us, we would be happy to have you. Even if you don't know a lot about hawk ID, another pair of eyes to find hawks we might otherwise miss, is useful. It has been demonstrated repeatedly that the greater the number of observers at a site, the greater the number of hawks seen. We can help you improve your ID skills. I have trained many over the decades. Of course if you are experienced, you would be especially welcome, for you can teach us the finer points in the ID of species we don't see in NY. If you want to know the days we are planning to be at the watch email me at aiantony@earthlink.net

It's early in the season but we thought we'd see what's migrating based on sightings in previous years in fall compiled by Carol Cwiklinski and Steve Small and shared very kindly with me.

 

Ajit I Antony

Central Park, Denver

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