Today, at 2:30pm the wind switched direction and the weather was warming up and so was the raptor migration! >From my yard, which is about a block from the river, I noticed a few raptors flying over, so I grabbed my bins. In about an hour span, between 2:45 and 3:45, I counted 10 species of raptors including: 1 N.GOSHAWK, 1 Swainson's Hawk, 3 osprey's, at least a dozen Broadwing Hawks, and 5 Marsh Harriers. The hilight of the day had to be a flyover MARBLED GODWIT! While standing in my back yard, and looking for raptors, I noticed a shorebird from a distance. While the bird continued to get closer, I noticed it was rather large. Then once it got right over head I could easily see the distinctive cinnamnon color to the under wings and the distinctive bill. What a nice addition to the yard list! Having seen these birds, we decided to go out and check out some flooded fields near Crane Creek. Here, we found a male HUDSONIAN GODWIT with several L. and G. Yellowlegs. At Sage Santuary, just down the road, there were two Swainson's Hawks, a light morph and an intermediate morph.
Good Birding, Tommy Stone, Evansdale --- 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]
