Nancy Ostman and I went to look at the Red-tailed Hawks at Cornell's game farm yesterday from 13:15-13:45 (NW 29 G 37, 29 degrees F, clear). I was curious to see how the winds would affect the hawk count and behavior. An approaching Arctic cold front made it extremely windy as temperatures fell rapidly. There were about 20 RTHA, down from 51 yesterday, with most flying and soaring instead of perching, as usual, on the poles and fences around the pheasant pens. The air was alive with RTHA and countless American Crows, with at least a thousand starlings wheeling and alighting in the pens. Along Stevenson Road, halfway between the pheasant pens and the compost piles, a vast number of gulls and crows sailed on the wind, joined for a brief time by two Turkey Vultures. Numerous small chevrons of Canada Geese flew by, or rather, were blown by, as we watched the aerial mêlée. Closer to the compost piles, gull and crow numbers tripled in the air and on the fields, with crows also perched in the nearby trees. While we saw no unusual species, it was exciting to be amidst such a vast number of black and white birds being whipped about in all directions.
Candace Cornell -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
