Oct 18th - Our First Rough-Legged Hawk

As the NW wind never did pick-up today we finished the day with a much lower count then expected.  The flight was for the most part directly over the park today but was very high up and made for some challanging ID'ing.  We did manage to see and identify a high-flying Rough-legged Hawk with the help of Ron Pittaway and Arvo Poolar's photo.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 22
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 18
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Red-shouldered Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 58
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
Golden Eagle - 1
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 112

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2648
Osprey - 92
Bald Eagle - 65
Northern Harrier - 172
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2533
Cooper's Hawk - 35
Northern Goshawk - 4
Red-shouldered Hawk - 16
Broad-winged Hawk - 89
Red-tailed Hawk - 234
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
Golden Eagle - 2
American Kestrel - 298
Merlin - 100
Peregrine Falcon - 57
Total - 6346

Eagle Time (DST):
10:58am - GE (juvenile)
01:04pm - BE (age unknown)

a high-flying Golden Eagle (Mike)

a high-flying Rough-legged Hawk (Arvo)

It's with photos like the two above that allow us to positively identify high-flying and very distant birds.  I can never thank the photographers enough for their great work in capturing these 'mystery' raptors.  Many birds would go unidentified without your help.

Other Birds:

Common Loon - 5 counted

Red-breasted Merganser - small group down on the lake

Double-crested Cormorants (Arvo)

Butterflies:

Monarch - 1

Mammals:

Eastern Cottontail

Hawkwatchers:

Richard, Phil and kids, Mike, Ron, Paul, Lorne, Norm, Pat & Nancy, Berle, John, Eleanor, Dahye, Arvo, Mark, Hugh, Betty, Cori, Allison, Blaine, Ann, and several others.  Thankyou for your help again today!

Weather Prediction:

Oct 19th - mainly sunny, SW 25km/h and gusting to 48km/h in the morning switching to SW 40km/h and gusting to 60km/h in the afternoon  (theweathernetwork.com)  Don't forget that strong SW wind could bring us Eagles and Peregrines!

See you at the park,

Walter