Sep 19th - Great Day.....If You Like Flickers!

Today we had more migrating Northern Flickers fly over than we did raptors!  With today's strong SE winds blowing from across the lake, we didn't have too many countable hawks above Rosetta.  Southeast wind is the most unfavorable wind for big birds that don't particularly like to flap their wings.  One raptor, a falcon, that we did see today was the fast flying Merlin.  We had 8 of them zoom by over the course of the day!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Merlin - 8
Today - 17

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 102
Osprey - 114
Bald Eagle - 58
Northern Harrier - 48
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1297
Cooper's Hawk - 16
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 1294
Red-tailed Hawk - 23
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 202
Merlin - 62
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 3220

Merlin (Lee)

 Osprey (Lee)

We had roughly 40 Northern Flickers fly over Rosetta today heading westward.  Heading eastward, we had 2 Common Ravens!

Blue Jay (Lee)

 

 A migrating Common Loon (Lee)

I'd like to thank everyone who came by today and if nothing else, chatted for a while.  The coffees kept me extra alert in case anything flew by at high speed.

Today we had about 150 Monarchs go by and Terry was able to tag about 20 of them.  A few folks got to capture and tag their own butterflies.  Ann caught a Monarch, tagged it and then let it go.  Then, she walked back over to the garden area only to catch the very same butterfly again!

Saturday will see the wind switch over to SW and pick up quite a bit.  If we're lucky, we may see Peregrines, Osprey, and Eagles.  The all enjoy the updraft off of the bluffs.

See you there!

Walter