Yesterday 11-18, Lowell Franks and I did the ECAS Christmas Valley Raptor
Survey under partly cloudy skies, calm to low winds, and temps. 36 - 50 degrees
F. We did not have an all day rainbow but the raptors kept our attention with
222 of them. The highlight of the day occurred after lunch just south of
Christmas Valley. The first field had one Roughy on the pivot which was usual.
we then went to the next hay field almost across the road and spotted 3 birds
on the pivot and 3 on the ground. I got out to better scan the field and
couldn't believe what I saw. I grabbed my scope and told Lowell to roll down
his window and start recording. When I finished scanning we had counted 47
raptors in the one field. The next field down the road had lots.
There seemed to be more dark morph red-tails and roughies this year then usual.
The two dark roughies that I have been seeing for the last 5 years were back
again this year.
Raptors counted:
Red-tailed Hawk 106
American Kestrel 1
Northern Harrier 15
Bald Eagle 0
Golden Eagle 13 No backpacks seen
Rough Legged Hawk 52
Ferruginous Hawk 26
Prairie Falcon 4
Unident. Buteo 7
Kim Boddie
Bend
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