Last Fri., the weather reports and my schedule told me I had to do the
Christmas Valley and Ft. Rock ECAS Raptor Surveys on Sun. and Mon. Sun.
morning I headed for the Christmas Valley route and as soon as I got to the
basin I saw the feast was on. There were live and dead jack rabbits everywhere.
especially when hay sheds were nearby. With the rabbits came the eagles. I
logged in 3 eagles while filling out the heading on my form. After 1 1/2 miles
I had to wait for over 100 elk to cross the road right in front of me, drove
around the next corner and waited for the same herd to cross again. This
morning Clay Crofton joined me for the Ft. Rock route and guess what lots of
rabbits and even more eagles. About 1 miles west of the rock we came over a
rise in the dense fog and about 30 + elk were not crossing the road but lying
down in it. They were out there after the hay barns just like the rabbits. In
the two days we counted 107 eagles, 67 Bald and 40 Golden, countless nos. of
Jack Rabbits, dead and alive, and too many ravens to count. We encountered
lots of sunshine between patches of dense fog with temps between -3 and +17
with 100% snow cover between 6 and 18 inches. It was 2 great days out on the
high desert.
Raptors counted:
Christmas Valley Fort Rock
Red-tailed Hawk 58 50
American Kestrel 2 2
Northern Harrier 2 1
Adult Bald Eagle 8 28
Sub adult Bald Eagle 5 26
Golden Eagle 23 17
Rough-legged Hawk 40 22
Ferruginous Hawk 8 1
Prairie Falcon 2
Cooper's Hawk 3
Unident. Buteo 3
Total 154 147
Kim Boddie
Bend
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