[obol] Christmas Valley Raptor Survey
- From: "Kim Boddie" <kcboddie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "COBOL sightings" <cobol@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "OBOL Sightings" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2013 09:48:29 -0800
Joan Mayer and Kevin Black-Tanski joined me on Tuesday 12/17 on the ECAS
Christmas Valley Raptor Survey. We spent 7 3/4 hours covering the 84 mile route
under partly cloudy skies, calm winds, and temps from 13 - 41 degrees F. We
counted 123 raptors with Red-tailed Hawks and Rough-legged Hawks being the high
counters. Ravens were pretty plentiful also with over 200 spotted. The
numbers game went to the American Robins. There were thousands of them out
there in the alfalfa fields and in the sagebrush. We did find few Redpolls at
the corner of Christmas Valley hgwy and Arrow Gap Rd. Lowell Franks and I
looked for them yesterday and could find no sign of small birds in the area.
Even the Robins had moved on.
The highlight of the trip was the sunset we saw as we left Ft. Rock SP. Non of
us had ever seen anything like it. The sun had dropped below the horizon and
there was a red orb with colored rings above the orb, kin of like the rings
around the moon you see some nights. I was in Ft. Rock yesterday and everyone
in town was talking about the strange sunset.
If anyone wants a photo, send me an e-mail address.
Here is what we counted;
Red-tailed Hawk -45 American Kestrel - 2
Northern Harrier - 2
Bald Eagle - 2!, 1S Golden Eagle - 9
Rough-legged Hawk - 41
Ferruginous Hawk - 12 Prairie Falcon - 2
Unid. Accipiter - 1
Unid. Buteo 6
Kim Boddie
Bend
Other related posts:
