Date: 7/25/25 4:08 pm From: aiantony <aiantony...> Subject: [cobirds] Why we are counting at Dinosaur Ridge, and not at Mount Zion this fall?
When I helped the spring raptor count at Dinosaur Ridge over the past few years, many of the raptors flew far to the West of the hawk watch site, going over Mount Morrison, going north over what we call the ‘Western Ridge,’ over the Mother Cabrini shrine, and past Lookout Mountain. I wondered whether raptors were flying even west of the ridge beyond where we could see from Dinosaur Ridge.Liza and I did an exploratory count in fall 2024 at a newly discovered and designated by us hawkwatch site Mount Zion, which is immediately north of Lookout Mountain and 4 miles Northwest of the Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch. We had a reasonable count with a total of 576 migrating raptors which averages is 9.1 raptors per hour.We had a good count there compared to what we had in fall in 2022 at Dinosaur Ridge, and a number of the raptors seen from Mount Zion were seen around the easternmost of the 3 antenna on Lookout Mountain, and further east of North and South Table Mountains. A number of kestrels came immediately East of the watch, flying in the valley between the watch and Lookout Mountain, eventually flying over the middle of Lookout Mountain. We called it the Kestrel Channel. Lookout Mountain is about 1.6 miles long measured from east to west. Only a few raptors flew directly over us, and extremely rare raptors flew to the west of Mount Zion, so it did not look as if raptors were flying to the West of the Western Ridge which would correspond to the West end of Lookout Mountain.We continued our observations during a partial exploratory spring watch at the Mount Zion Hawk Watch and found again that the flyway was mainly to the east of the watch. We aborted the spring watch at Mount Zion 2025 when we found that we had small numbers compared to Dinosaur Ridge Hawk.You can see the numbers at Hawkcount.orgThis suggested to us that the main flyway for this area in fall is East of Lookout Mountain i.e. visible from Dinosaur Ridge, except perhaps for the kestrels which would be difficult to see along the distant Kestrel Channel.When we conducted a fall exploratory count at Dinosaur Ridge Hawk Watch in 2022, we had just moved here from New York, where the best winds for big flights were the day after a cold front going through with NW winds, and we assumed that the same would pertain here not knowing any better, and looking at our data in Hawkcount, there was a definite emphasis on NW/W, which would explain why we had such a paltry count of 78 raptors for the fall season 2022.Over the past 3 years we've learned that NW and West winds in spring are the worst winds for Dinosaur Ridge, and also in fall based on our sightings at the Mount Zion Hawk Watch.Carol Cwiklinski, who counted at Dinosaur with Steve Small, had given us some observations she and Steve had had, both from Dinosaur Ridge as well as from Mount Vernon, across the valley to the west from Dinosaur Ridge, and they had good numbers in fall in 2018 - 2020.We decided we would sacrifice the count at Mount Zion and do another exploratory count at Dinosaur Ridge instead this fall, going on days with better winds, i.e. NE and East. This would give us a much better idea of the potential of Dinosaur Ridge in fall.I ran the idea past Emma Riley, the Project Lead at Dinosaur Ridge, and she thought it was a good idea, so also Natalie Uschner-Arroyo, the present Hawk Watch Chair and Program Manager of the watch, as well as Janet Peters who held that post before Natalie.Anyone interested in raptors is welcome to join us on the ridge, even if you know very little of raptor ID in flight, we need spotters who can find raptors for us. In turn, we will help you learn raptor ID.If you have any questions or comments, please email me privately.Directions to site:From exit 259 on I-70 towards Morrison - Rte 93, drive south under the freeway and make a left turn into the Stegosaurus Parking Lot. Take the trail from the south end of the parking lot to the hawk watch site. The trail goes south for 20 ft, then NE on an old two-track which acutely turns south. When the trail goes under the high tension wires, and soon reaches the top of the ridge, turn sharply left, and you will see us there. (Distance: 0.56 miles, Elevation gain: 259 feet)Ajit AntonyLiza AntonyCentral Park, DenverSent from my Galaxy
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