So today with lots of sun and strong southern winds, I decided to put up a lawn chair in the front yard of the place we're staying at, and get out the binocs and scope and scan for raptors. I had a very fun time, with a total of 55 raptors over the course of roughly 4 hours. Two Broad-winged Hawks flew overhead in a small kettle of Swainson's Hawks, a Sharpie, Cooper's, and Red-tailed Hawks, totalling a dozen birds in a kettle. What a rush it is, counting and IDing raptors in kettles!
Here's my totals from the yard today Red-tailed Hawk - 8 (two dark morph) Broad-winged Hawk - 2 (my first of the season!) Turkey Vulture - 2 Swainson's Hawk - 21 Cooper's Hawk - 3 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2 American Kestrel - 6 Unknown buteo - 6 Unknown Falcon - 3 Unknown raptor - 2 American White Pelican - 80 Double-crested Cormorant - 34 Franklin's Gull - 70 Here's stuff that's within the front yard, or within a block of my house which I heard/saw today while doing the hawk count... Mourning Dove Eurasian Collared Dove Northern Flicker (most are Yellow-shafted, but we have seen several red-shafted ones too!) Hairy Woodpecker American Crow American Robin European Starling Common Grackle HARRIS'S SPARROW RED CROSSBILL Tomorrow's forecast weather is lots of sun (upper 80's for temp), and strong south winds. I'll likely be doing this tomorrow :) Good birding, Erik Bruhnke Hyde Co, SD [email protected] www.pbase.com/birdfedr ---- Join or Leave mou-net:http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives:http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
