Re: [cobirds] Kettles of Hawks - Jeffco - Lakewood

After seeing Ira's post, and being a mile away, I went for a walk. I had 2 Broad-winged up high with a kettle of turkey vultures. I saw mostly vultures. Sky watching sure beats doing work. This was on the fed center in Lakewood, JeffCo.

Scott Somershoe

Littleton CO

On Thu, Oct 1, 2026 at 11:57 AM David Suddjian <dsuddjian@gmail.com> wrote:

On the theme of kettling Buteos . . .

Yesterday in the late afternoon I spotted a flock of 6 Broad-winged Hawks pass right over my Ken Caryl (JeffCo) home, heading south. And this morning a kettle of 15 Broad-wingeds was moving south at Chatfield SP (Douglas) along the Platte south of Kingfisher Bridge. Prior to these observations, all of my occasional fall BWHA sightings in CO have been of singletons (all from September).

David Suddjian

Littleton CO

On Thu, Oct 1, 2026 at 10:22 AM zroadrunner14 <zroadrunner14@gmail.com> wrote:

Birders, 

At 10 am we were N bound on Kipling S of Alameda and Tammy spotted a kettle of at least 70 - 80 hawks just E of Kipling. 2 min later there was another of about 15 birds. She spotted a couple of TV's but the rest were buteos. 

Too far east for Ajit to get them. 

I've never seen that in Colorado before. 

Ira Sanders

Trinidad, CO

Temporarily in Lakewood 

"

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Re: [cobirds] Kettles of Hawks - Jeffco - Lakewood

On the theme of kettling Buteos . . .

Yesterday in the late afternoon I spotted a flock of 6 Broad-winged Hawks pass right over my Ken Caryl (JeffCo) home, heading south. And this morning a kettle of 15 Broad-wingeds was moving south at Chatfield SP (Douglas) along the Platte south of Kingfisher Bridge. Prior to these observations, all of my occasional fall BWHA sightings in CO have been of singletons (all from September).

David Suddjian

Littleton CO

On Thu, Oct 1, 2026 at 10:22 AM zroadrunner14 <zroadrunner14@gmail.com> wrote:

Birders, 

At 10 am we were N bound on Kipling S of Alameda and Tammy spotted a kettle of at least 70 - 80 hawks just E of Kipling. 2 min later there was another of about 15 birds. She spotted a couple of TV's but the rest were buteos. 

Too far east for Ajit to get them. 

I've never seen that in Colorado before. 

Ira Sanders

Trinidad, CO

Temporarily in Lakewood 

"

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[cobirds] Mountains in the City - Evening Grosbeak in SW Denver

To continue the theme of mountain stuff showing up out in the plains, was working at home (Athmar neighborhood, SW Denver, Denver Co.) this morning (Thurs. 1Oct.’26) and heard the familiar calls of an EVENING GROSBEAK out our open window.  Quickly found her, but didn’t see or hear any others which is weird in-and-of-itself.  In addition to the grosbeak (which was the first here in 7 years), we have a couple of continuing MOUNTAIN CHICKADEEs (first in five years) and a WOODHOUSE’S SCRUB-JAY (guess not technically a mountain species) today so far.  In the past week or so have also had Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Hermit Thrush, and a small flock of Pine Siskins, though the kinglets and thrush were likely migrants, but still “mountains…ish”.

 

So keep your eyes and ears open and please keep the mountain theme going, it’s going to be an interesting winter.

 

Good Birding,

Doug

Currently Denver

 

[cobirds] Kettles of Hawks - Jeffco - Lakewood

Birders, 

At 10 am we were N bound on Kipling S of Alameda and Tammy spotted a kettle of at least 70 - 80 hawks just E of Kipling. 2 min later there was another of about 15 birds. She spotted a couple of TV's but the rest were buteos. 

Too far east for Ajit to get them. 

I've never seen that in Colorado before. 

Ira Sanders

Trinidad, CO

Temporarily in Lakewood 

"

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[cobirds] Bird Conservancy of the Rockies - Barr Lake Banding Report, 9/30/26

The weather prediction was that today would be the first day of the season that we got rained out, perhaps the latest in a fall season for us to have not missed a day due to weather.  But no, simply grey skies and a bit cooler.

We did get our first flock (as opposed to a bird here and there) of Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a bunch of other birds telling us that it is fall.

Our big excitement - we caught a Blue Jay (first of season), a beautiful bird, with a band.  A check of our records shows we (actually I!) banded this bird on September 2, 2012, as an adult!!  So, this bird is at least 15 years old!!  It isn't close to the longevity record for this species - there was one found (dead) in 2016 that was 27!  But the next 3 on the list were 16-17 years old and all were last caught in the 1970-80's.

Breakdown of today's 61 new, 2 returns:

Red-eyed Vireo 1

Blue Jay 1 return, banded as adult in 2012!

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5

Hermit Thrush 6

Gray Catbird 1

Orange-crowned Warbler 8

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Audubon's 14

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Myrtle 2

Yellow-rumped Warbler, unidentified 2

Wilson's Warbler 4

Spotted Towhee 1

Song Sparrow 4

Lincoln's Sparrow 1

White-crowned Sparrow, Gambel's 11 new, 1 return, banded 2023

Dark-eyed Junco, Oregon 1

We are open Tuesday through Sunday, weather permitting, through October 23.  Most weekday mornings there is a visitor session from 7:30 to 8:30, and on the weekends there are sessions at 8, 9 and 10 a.m.  Reservations are needed; here is the link.   Please join us......It is a great year to visit Barr!

Meredith McBurney

Bander, Barr Lake Station

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

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[cobirds] Sandhill Cranes at the Mount Zion Hawk Watch

At 12:45 p.m. MDT today at the Mount Zion Hawk Watch, Liza found a huge sedge of Sandhill Crane far and high to the Northeast while she was binocular scanning for migrant raptors. She was so excited she could not even remember the name of the species and said 'the ones in Nebraska.' I was able to get on them with binoculars and scope, and at a conservative estimate there were about 500. They looked beautiful against a blue sky when their white stood out, and again when they were over Lookout Mountain over the easternmost 2 antenna the sun hit them, looking bright against the blue gray clouds. At no point could we hear them bugling, they were so very far away.

 
https://ebird.org/checklist/S397629502

Ajit I Antony

Central Park, Denver

Sent using myEarthLink

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[cobirds] Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park (29 Sep 2026) 66 Raptors

Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA

To see hourly weather data and details of migrant raptors, look up this watch at hawkcount.org. This is a new raptor migration site identified and designated in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch site, and the second hawk watch in Colorado. 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. EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO THE HAWK WATCH TO ENJOY THE SPECTACLE OF RAPTOR MIGRATION, EVEN IF YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IDENTIFYING RAPTORS IN FLIGHT. We will help you to learn Raptor ID if you are interested. See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk

Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 29, 2026
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	26	143	248
Osprey	2	24	26
Bald Eagle	0	4	5
Northern Harrier	0	17	18
Sharp-shinned Hawk	0	16	19
Cooper's Hawk	13	166	180
American Goshawk	0	0	0
Broad-winged Hawk	2	102	102
Red-tailed Hawk	18	318	475
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Swainson's Hawk	1	174	189
Ferruginous Hawk	0	1	1
Golden Eagle	1	13	14
American Kestrel	3	109	129
Merlin	0	4	4
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	1
Prairie Falcon	0	1	2
Mississippi Kite	0	0	0
Unknown Accipitrine	0	3	3
Unknown Buteo	0	6	7
Unknown Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	9	10
Total:	66	1110	1433

Observation start time:	08:15:00
Observation end time:	15:30:00
Total observation time:	7.25 hours
Official Counter	Ajit Antony
Observers:	Liza Antony

Visitors:
A couple who had visited 3 weeks ago were back and asked just many questions - how many raptors we had seen, amazed that we had 55 for the day. They insisted that we tell them the number of migrant raptors and explain that 55 was the number of migrants (excellent for Denver in fall). Another visitor asked what we were looking at.

Weather:
Completely overcast just like yesterday except a silver lining, far to the Northeast was sunlight. Stratus clouds all over, with beautiful asperitas clouds to the SSE. Chilly. Virga to the north. Light winds from the NE, and the winds aloft were from the NNE to NE. Minimal haze to the east/DIA.

Raptor Observations:
In the parking lot a juvenile CH was chasing a BBMA, much too large a prey, I would have thought. Playing at hunting? The first migrant at 10:01 a.m. MDT was a juvenile SW. There were no migrants until the clouds parted so that sunlight could hit the ground and create thermals. A non-migrant RT chased a migrant CH. A migrant CH dove on an RT perched on top of a high tension power pole 10x and then continued its migration. An adult GE migrated through at 1:46 p.m., another at 2:54 p.m. over Denver was lost when I went to my scope, and was not counted as a migrant. I stayed late this afternoon, one of the few days without afternoon thunderstorms to see if they would be any low migrants after the sun got hidden behind clouds to the West, but all the hawks continued to be binocular raptors except a juvenile RT which came at eye level through the Kestrel Channel 'escorted' by an adult RT. In the last 36 minutes there were no migrants. Non-migrant raptors: GE 1, RT 4, TV 5.

Non-raptor Observations:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S397629502 Around 500 Sandhill Crane flying south, so far that they could not be heard at all. A paraglider at 11:00 a.m. had no lift and could not even reach our level. The one at noon had excellent lift and went very high. Interestingly today is the only day I have ever seen a Soaring Forecast with a lift of 0 meters per second, and the predicted height of thermals was only 4,199 ft AGL by 1:45 p.m. MDT - below the level of the watch. However that seems to have been predicted on the basis of perhaps continuing cloud cover, which broke enough to allow the sun to produce thermals which the buteos used.

Predictions:
A cold front is going through Denver tomorrow with a 65% chance of rain by 9:00 a.m., so we will not count tomorrow. Thursday after the front goes through should be excellent for migrant raptors. The winds aloft are expected to be from the N>NE>E.

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Report submitted by Ajit Antony (aiantony@earthlink.net)
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]

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