Aug 11th - 3 Osprey Flying Over Together

Just after 10:00AM this morning Lee, who was at Bluffer's Park, sent me a text message asking if I had seen 3 Osprey flying over Rosetta.  Sadly, I had to reply with a big 'no' as I was in my basement at home waiting for a furnace maintenance guy to come.  It wasn't until I arrived at the park sometime around lunch that I was happily informed that John and a few others were present to see them fly directly overhead.  Thankyou everyone!  Unfortunately though that was it for raptor sightings for the day.  (The last time that three Osprey were observed flying together at Rosetta was in September of 2010 when we saw it happen 2 or 3 times in one day.....the day we counted 53 Osprey!)

To Date:
Osprey - 8
Bald Eagle - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Copper's Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 7
American Kestrel - 3
Merlin - 2
Total - 25

The mink was seen again this afternoon running along and through the fence by the big Maple tree.  We'll have to monitor the squirrel and bunny populations for a while.

Our 'butterflying' friend Leon S. was at the park today in search of the female Fiery Skipper that I photographed and reported online two days ago.  He didn't find the skipper but he told me that he had seen an Eastern Comma and a Giant Swallowtail in the search.  That was great news to me as they were both new species for our fall park survey.  We are currently sitting at 17 butterfly species in just the first 11 days of the survey.  While chatting with Leon in the main garden area I spotted a Giant Swallowtail flying and landing in a bed of Petunias and other flowers.  We quickly went over and Leon informed me that it was a different one then the one he'd seen earlier.  He said that this one was in much better shape.  A third 'Giant' was seen later in the day while Cori was searching the gardens.

Here are two photos that I took.

 

Giant Swallowtail (upperside)

 Giant Swallowtail (underside)

The forecast for the next day or two sees rain in the area so we'll likely have to wait it out.  Thursday is still looking good for an early movement of birds.

Walter

PS:  To my friend Robin, Thankyou for all the laughs.