All,
sorry for the late post, but I did a day trip to Highland county and focused
almost exclusively on the Blue Grass area North of Monterey. The passerines
were all passed out or passed on passed by ...... I somehow managed to go
the entire day of birding without seeing a single Chickadee, Titmouse,
Woodpecker, Mourning Dove. Total species was 13. However I did see some nice
Raptors and that was the focus of the trip anyhow. I picked up two Golden
Eagles at Margaret O'brians on rt 640. The first Golden was proabably a
Subadult I and was first seen in Pendelton County and then conveniently flew
into Highland county for me. The second GE (immature) was seen after a while
as it began to interact with the first bird. Later on I picked up a
Rough-legged Hawk on Laurel Fork road just a .2 mile from the junction with
643 this was my first Rough-legged not seen at a Hawk watch. I got splendid
views and was able to watch this bird for quite some time. At some point a
hawk spooked a flock of Starlings and then nabbed one from the flock in
midair. I lost track of this bird but shortly thereafter I found an
Accipiter sitting in someone's drive way with plucking away at her/his
dinner. I got excellent photos of this bird but was still having difficulty
identifying the bird. I have lots of trouble identifying perched raptors. If
they fly around a bit I do pretty well. Well this bird wasn't flying he was
eating. Anyway, the concensus on the Accipiter seems to be a Coops.
Sincerely,
W
Location: Blue Grass
Observation date: 12/27/06
Notes: Very few passerines seen. It was almost errie how quiet and so few birds. However, the raptors made for an exciting trip nonetheless. .
Number of species: 13
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 5
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Golden Eagle 2
American Kestrel 5
Belted Kingfisher 1
Blue Jay 1
American Crow 5
Common Raven 3
Carolina Wren 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling 100
Dark-eyed Junco 7
House Sparrow 45
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2 (http://www.ebird.org)