Johnny and I ran our "other" route, the North Santiam Raptor Route
yesterday, Friday, Jan. 15, in unusually pleasant weather. I am
reporting it mostly because of the really nice conversation we had with
a policeman who pulled in behind us on Hwy 22 when we were on the
shoulder scoping a hawk in a distant tree. I have a big yellow sign in
the back window that says RAPTOR SURVEY IN PROGRESS (thanks, Dawn!) to
help keep cars out of my trunk, so the officer knew, basically, what we
were doing. I, the driver, was busying looking at the hawk through my
window. The officer walked up to the passenger side and asked if we
needed anything. Johnny showed him our chart and explained what we were
doing. The guy saw AMKE on the chart and said, "American Kestrel, we see
a lot of them hit along here. We take the injured ones to Turtle Ridge.
We get Red-tails too. And recently we took a Bald Eagle to Turtle
Ridge." He said the birds catch prey in the median strip and as they fly
up, sometimes fly into a passing car.
What a nice guy. I had no idea traffic cops might be raptor
knowledgeable and even know what AMKE stands for. I told Jeff he was our
"best sighting" of the day.
As for birds, in this 75 mile route from Salem to Gates (mostly on roads
north and south of 22), we saw:
Red-tailed Hawk, 24
American Kestrel, 28
Northern Harrier, 2
Bald Eagle, 1 Adult
Linda Fink
--
http://lindafink.blogspot.com/
http://lindafink-birdnotes.blogspot.com/
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