I am forwarding a description from Ryan of the big day last week at Hitchcock on Thursday
Here goes.... . The day started slowly with no birds for the first 30 minutes or so, but the first raptor of the day was a Goledn Eagle slowly making it's way south to the east of me over Pigeon Creek Valley. The red-tails soon followed and from then on it was a fairly consistent flow of birds over the next 5 hours or so. Of course, the crows were flowing through fairly consistently as well making for difficult scanning, as they soared and glided their way through mimicing raptors along the way. I want to stress that the estimate of 3000 crows is extremely conservative. I was speaking with the folks from the banding station and they mentioned in one instance it appeared as if there were 1500 crows going by. While making my way through the crows, I came across the Northern Goshawk cruising down west ridge. The bird simply let the wind do most of the work, flapping a bit and circling a couple of times probably scanning the trees for a snack. Due to the strong winds, birds were using the entire sky so frequent scanning the skies above me proved productive. This is when the Ferruginous showed up gliding through with two red-tails. As they all glided over me it was easy to distinguish the two species of birds as the first red-tail began to soar and the Ferruginous soon followed. The red-tail made many turns while soaring, but the Ferruginous simply soared 2-3 times and was off again into a glide south. Finally, at the end of the day, I was coming back up the tower at about 1730 to gather up equipment, and as I reached the last flight of stairs there was the Short-eared Owl gracefully floating around not 50 yards to the south of the tower just above eye level. I watched it for about 2-3 minutes circle around and appear as if it wanted to go north a bit, but eventually giving in to the wind and heading south. A nice way to end a remarkable day on the tower. ryan Only that day dawns to which we are awake -- Thoreau ________________________________ From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: Jonas Grundman <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Samdy R <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected]; "[email protected]" <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected]; Don and Janis Paseka <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Jerry Toll <[email protected]>; [email protected]; jim meyer <[email protected]>; Clem Klaphake <[email protected]>; Phil Swanson <[email protected]>; [email protected]; Elliott Bedows <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; Stan Howe <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected]; Chad Graeve <[email protected]>; ryan evans <[email protected]>; [email protected]; [email protected]; Erin Kenney <[email protected]>; Sue M <[email protected]>; Tina Popson <[email protected]>; Kelly Dix <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, October 26, 2012 8:29 AM Subject: RE: Yesterday--Big + schedule Hi all, A couple of things. We need to start thinking about the November schedule. I'll send out an e-mail soon on that. I have also had some requests from IA-Bird people for more detailed descriptions of the dramatic events at the watch during the last week. The Prairie Falcon trap and band on the 19th and the great day yesterday with the three rarities (FEHA, NOGO, and SEOW), the big crow flight and the record Red-tail trapping. Mark O ---- jim meyer <[email protected]> wrote: ============= I can cover Sunday the 21st, but I will be out of town the following weekend. jim > Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2012 07:29:42 -0400 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; > [email protected] > Subject: Yesterday--Big + schedule > > 350+ yesterday-- mostly tails and shins. Plenty of eyes on the tower too... > > 2nd half of October schedule > > 15-18 Ryan 19 Sandy 20 Clem 21st (need someone for that Sunday I will be out > of town) > 22-25 Ryan 26 Sandy 27 (Ryan and Jim? 28 Mark O 29-31 Ryan > > > > >============= --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
