Today,Rodger,Jane,Margaret,Murray and myself had a reasonable day,given the conditions. On the plus side,almost everything seen was very close and first time visitor Murray saw his first Rosetta raptor(the Bald Eagle). I enjoyed seeing the local Coopers Hawk harrass a Red-shouldered Hawk,which landed briefly in a tree along the bluffs for refuge. I took 2 steps in the direction of the tree to take a photo(it was at least 1/3 of the park away from me) and it took off. A few Redtailed Hawks streamed along the edge of the bluffs,followed by a juvenile Bald Eagle at 11:40am. All 4 Turkey Vultures also went right along the bluffs at or below eye level. It seemed there were definete lulls between short bursts of birds. The final total of 68 birds consisted of :
4-Turkey Vultures
1-Bald Eagle
9-Northern Harriers
21-Sharpshinned Hawks
5-Coopers Hawks
3-Red-shouldered Hawks
24-Redtailed Hawks
1-American Kestrel
The next week is very iffy...if it isnt raining I'll be there.
Vultures Ahoy...Day Count 499..YTD..4796
Sometime after 11am,by which time we had only 22 raptors,the squadrons of Turkey Vultures began to arrive. Within about 20minutes we saw about 150 and they just kept coming. As many of those gathered are newer raptor watchers,the volume of Turkey Vultures was very impressive,and I must say it was the biggest day for them yet at Rosetta. We saw many kettles of Vultures,with a Redtail,Sharpie or Red-shoulder thrown in. More people left,and Les,Berle and myself were treated to a Northern Goshawk,on which I was able to point out various characteristics to Leslie,an immature Bald Eagle..ID'd properly from a photo..at the time I couldnt get any colour looking at it and mistakenly recorded it as a Golden. ,and 3 immature Golden Eagles! Times 2:15,2:20(2 came) and the Bald was basically same time. One of the eagles circled with a Redtail,first just offering a great lesson in size contrast and wing shape,and then the eagle got annoyed at the hawk and turned its tallons up and grabbed at it! Quite a thrill to see. Our final total was 499 raptors,consisting of:
393-Turkey Vultures
1-Bald Eagle
3-Northern Harriers
29-Sharpshinned Hawks
7-Coopers Hawks
1-Northern Goshawk
4-Red-shouldered Hawks
54-Redtailed Hawks
3-Golden Eagles
3-American Kestrels
1-Merlin
The 393 Turkey Vultures is a new one day record for this site. Thanks to everyone for their contributions and commraderie,without all those extra eyes,I would have missed alot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)