A few other notes now that I managed to take care of another obligation:
This was part of an East Cascades Audubon Society raptor survey that I figured
I'd better squeeze in today since there's only one more day left in the January
survey window, and the weather outlook for tomorrow didn't look so good. Other
raptors besides the Prairie Falcon were:
37 Red-tailed Hawk (down from 52 in mid-Dec)
24 American Kestrel (down from 28)
4 Northern Harrier (down from 6)
5 Bald Eagle (2 adults and 3 sub-adult including one osprey-headed 3rd-year; up
from 4 total last month)
2 Rough-legged Hawk (down from 3)
Part of the decrease might be due to a single-observer effect (last month my
daughter Martha came along as a spotter), but I don't think I could have missed
that many Red-tailed Hawks.
One Red-tailed Hawk was on a nest along Camp Adair Rd. at E.E. Wilson Wildlife
Area, with its mate close by.
Three American Kestrels were interacting around a single power pole along Ryals
Rd. east of Adair Village. I thought most kestrels were already paired up last
month, but at least a few of them still seem to be sorting things out.
Among non-raptors, a massive flock of AMERICAN PIPITS were along Palestine Rd.
about half a mile east of the Corvallis-Independence Hwy. I guesstimated 400,
they were just all over that field, along with three Bald Eagles gnawing on
some small corpses, and a few ravens.
From: "clearwater" <clearwater@xxxxxxxx>
To: "birding" <birding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2019 12:39:09 PM
Subject: Prairie Falcon along Robison Rd., n. edge of Benton Co.
Around 11 AM this morning an adult Prairie Falcon was in a field near the
intersection of Wiles Rd. and Robison Rd. in n. Benton County.
It was on the ground out in a grass field but flew east when I stopped to
identify it. Could be the same one that Kai Frueh found earlier this month just
east of Adair Village, or a different one. They do move around quite a bit, but
in some years there can be a couple in the Camp Adair neighborhood.
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
