[obol] Christmas Valley ECAS Raptor Survey
- From: "Kim Boddie" <kcboddie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "COBOL sightings" <cobol@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "OBOL Sightings" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 20:29:02 -0800
Lowell Franks joined me today on a perfect day to conduct a Raptor Survey
around Christmas Valley. The temperature ranged from 12 to 53 degrees F. under
clear skies, and NOOOOOO wind. We had the second highest November raptor
count of 124 for the 10 years of the survey. Beside seeing lots of raptors we
also saw 3 N. Shrikes, 20 Pronghorn, 20+ Mule deer, 1 Coyote, and lots of
ravens and Am. Robins. It is rutting season for Mule Deer and those in love
bucks are not paying attention to anything but the girls. Several bucks
chasing does didn't pay any attention to us as we drove by.
This morning at 6:30, as I was walking to my car in the dark I came within 5
feet of a 4 point buck who was watching a doe in my garden. When he saw me, he
tried to stare me down until I swung my backpack at him. He then walked away
about 20 feet and watched me load my car. I live in an old residential area of
Bend and a herd of about 13 deer have been entertaining the neighbors and
eating our flowers, shrubs and bird feed.
Here are the raptors we saw today:
Red-tailed Hawks - 46 American Kestrel - 2
Northern Harrier - 7
Bald Eagle - 1A Golden Eagle - 10
Rough-legged Hawk - 43
Ferruginous Hawk - 10 Prairie Falcon - 2
Coopers Hawk - 1
Unident. Buteo - 2
We got to spend about 5 minutes watching an almost black dark morph
Rough-legged Hawk on a power pole right in front of us. From the back, there
were almost no distinguishing marks until it flew and you could see the white
on tail and under wings. Lowell said that hawk made his day.
Kim Boddie
Bend
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