Greetings,
I spent today in a hawk blind with three friends at Short Hill in northern
Loudoun County. An absolutely perfect day to be sitting atop a ridge with the
high pressure moving into the region after the past few days of rain and
such. We did have one short-lived squall pass through. The wind was constant
at about 15 mph, with gusts probably getting close to 25 mph.
Our view is from north to west (obstructed to the east), and through small
windows in the blind, and we managed to count 236 Red-taileds, 25
Sharp-shinneds, 17 Cooper's Hawks, 9 Bald Eagles, 4 Merlins, 2 Osprey. one
Harrier, and
one Goshawk, totaling just under 300 birds. We caught and banded twelve
Red-taileds and one Cooper's Hawk. At least seven of the Red-taileds were
after
hatching year birds (born previous to this year). A terrible catch ratio,
though we had probably another twenty Red-taileds make long stoops before
bailing out at the last second.
Other birds of note were about 150 Cormorants, and a few flocks of finches
that went unidentified.
Those of you interested in hawks, tomorrow has the potential of good numbers
of birds that veteran hawk watchers dream about: late October, the second
day after a front, partly to mostly cloudy, and wind from the northwest, or
perhaps west-northwest. If you can skip out of work, find yourself at a
hawkwatch, especially a ridge.
Cheers,
Todd
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Todd Michael Day
Jeffersonton, VA, USA
blkvulture@xxxxxxx
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