October 19th - Cold and Very Windy!

Not exactly sure where the NE winds were this morning, most of what we saw were east winds on land and out over the lake the winds were from the south. Many birds observed today were fighting the wind all the way across the sky. Until today, I'd never seen a Great Blue Heron soar without flapping and going along sideways and backwards. By lunch the rain had moved in and chased us out of the park.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Bald Eagle - 1 (juvenile 11:07)
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 8

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1503
Osprey - 120
Bald Eagle - 56
Northern Harrier - 165
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1554
Cooper's Hawk - 65
Northern Goshawk - 12
Red-shouldered Hawk - 5
Broad-winged Hawk - 757
Red-tailed Hawk - 102
American Kestrel - 609
Merlin - 110
Peregrine Falcon - 37
Total - 5095

The tail-end of a Bald Eagle

This morning a few of us watched as a nice tightly packed flock of 40-50 unidentified shorebirds flew out over the lake just a little too far for our binoculars. It was so windy today that a low flying Great Blue Heron stopped and rested in the half-dead tree on the east side of the park. I believe this is a first.

Great Blue Heron

Interesting cloud formations just before it rained.

OMG, It's not a peanut!

Betty, Theresa, Hugh, Berle, Terry 2, and I all showed up this morning hoping for a good movement of birds.

Walter