October 27th - Low Rough-legged Hawk!

Today was another head scratcher as we stood and wondered where the birds were.  Given all the reports I received in the afternoon it sure sounds like many of them flew to the north of us and missed Rosetta completely.  On a happier note, we did get a nice low fly-over of a Rough-legged Hawk.  That's something I don't remember ever seeing at the Watch before.  Also, out over the lake we had another Northern Goshawk fly by.  Speaking of Goshawks, I added one to the Oct 25th count after lots of reviewing of a photo that was taken of it.  This gives us 4 for the season!

Today:
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 21
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Northern Goshawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 3
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
Total - 29

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1589
Osprey - 117
Bald Eagle - 100
Northern Harrier - 118
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1550
Cooper's Hawk - 41
Northern Goshawk - 4
Red-shouldered Hawk - 10
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 256
Rough-legged Hawk - 9
Golden Eagle - 2
American Kestrel - 470
Merlin - 57
Peregrine Falcon - 50
Total - 4512

Rough-legged Hawk (Mike P)

Red-tailed Hawk and Crow (Paul)

Eight more Loons were observed today as well as a Northern Shrike which flew over the park.

Northern Shrike (Ann)

I'd like to thank everyone who visited the Watch today for all the help in spotting and identifying of the hawks.  Twas another one of those day, not easy!

We are now only 544 birds away from the magic mark of '50,000 Raptors Counted'.  I can clearly remember last fall how happy and proud Frank spoke when he realized that his dream was now going to become a reality.  I look forward to checking that bird off when it flies by.  What an amazing number!

It's likely that the foundation for Frank's bench will be poured tomorrow.  I'll keep you updated.

At the time of writing wunderground.com is predicting "Partly cloudy with a chance of rain. High of 10C. Breezy. Winds from the North at 15 to 30 km/h." for tomorrow.  The weather network is predicting similar with wind gusts up to 38 km/h.  See you at the park.

Walter