Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 17:00:00
Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Emma Riley, Soren Zappia
Observers:
Visitors:
Today brought a fantastic number of visitors to the site due to it being
Mother�s Day. We had a total of 60 visitors! Many families enjoyed learning
about raptor migration and trying to spot one of our local birds.
We owe a massive thank you to Cayce and Chris Gulbransen for volunteering
today and for so much this season. Your help has been priceless! Thank you
Janet Peters for hiking empanadas up to the ridge today, this is our
favorite end of year tradition. Thank you to Caroline Fegley for coming
down from Laramie to help us count birds!
We could list everyone out that has been involved and thank them but it
will be much more concise to extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who
has been involved in the 2026 count season. We appreciate every volunteer,
committee member, donor, and curious visitor. It has been a great year and
we are looking forward to the next!
Weather:
It was a beautiful May day with blue skies and minimal cloud cover.
Temperatures were warm but not too hot, and there was a nice breeze from
the E.
Raptor Observations:
Well, we've done it again. That's a wrap on the 2026 season! Already! We
had a nice last day of migration today with birds steadily coming
throughout the day, mostly overhead high and W along the west ridge. We had
one final Broad-winged Hawk, bringing our total for the year to 99 BW.
This year was our highest year ever at this site for observer hours, thanks
to our dedicated counters Soren Zappia and Emma Riley. We only had three
full weather cancellations this season which aided in this record.
Let's talk birds! This season was our 2nd highest Osprey count since 2000,
2nd highest Northern Harrier count since 2005, our 3rd highest Swainson's
Hawk count ever, and our 2nd highest American Kestrel count since 1997.
We had notably low counts on Turkey Vultures, Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles,
and Ferruginous Hawks. We have speculated on the reason for this, and we
wonder if a warm winter and less than ideal winds during peak season
impacted the movements of these birds.
Overall, this season was the second lowest count that we�ve had since
Denver Field Ornithologists took over this count site. We value all data
collection that happens here, and look forward to analysis that can help us
understand these populations and how to best conserve them.
Thank you all for another great season!
Non-raptor Observations:
White-throated Swift 2, Broad-tailed Hummingbird 2, Mourning Dove 2,
Northern Flicker 1, Say's Phoebe 1, Western Kingbird 1, Blue Jay 1,
Woodhouse's Scrub Jay 2, Common Raven 3, Violet-green Swallow 6, Northern
Rough-winged Swallow 1, Barn Swallow 1, Cliff Swallow 5, American Bushtit
4, Rock Wren 2, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher 3, American Robin 1, Lesser Goldfinch
1, Pine Siskin 2, Spotted Towhee 3, Western Meadowlark 1, Brown-headed
Cowbird 2, Virginia's Warbler 1, Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) 1,
Lazuli Bunting 1, passerine sp. 2
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Report submitted by Official Counter of the day shown above (<dinoridgehw...>)
Dinosaur Ridge - Denver Field Ornithologists information may be found at:
www.dinosaurridgehawkwatch.org
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)
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