Jo Hays Vista Hawk Watching, September 13, 2011

Yesterday, I spent most of the day hawk watching at Jo Hays Vista hawk watch. While I didn’t get nearly as many raptors as Hawk Mountain (more than 1600!), I more than doubled Jo Hays season count.  This was mainly due to small kettles of Broad-winged Hawks that consistently came through between 1:00 and 2:00.  Kettles ranged in size from around 10 to 20 Broad-wings each.  After gliding in over the “Happy Valley” of State College, kettles usually formed right over the radio towers. Here, they would rise high into the sky and glide off to the east above the ridge.  A few Sharp-shinned Hawks came into view near the kettles, and two Cooper’s Hawks were also mixed in throughout the day. Occasionally, single Broad-winged Hawks would fly through, after a number of kettles had formed and left, as if they had missed the memo that it was peak Broad-winged migration week and they were hurrying to catch up.  I also counted 8 Bald Eagles today, including 2 juveniles, a subadult, and 5 adults. One adult flew right through the “vista” overlook and over the road in full powered flight. Unfortunately there were no visitors to see it. If you really want to see a Bald Eagle here, you’ve got to put in the time. Only 2 of my eight were visible with the naked eye today.  I’ll be up at Jo Hays for the remainder of the week if anyone would like to join me and help me count Broad-wings!

Broad-winged Hawk - adult

Broad-winged Hawk - adult

Bald Eagle - adult

Bald Eagle - adult

Bald Eagle - adult

Turkey Vulture - adult

Monarchs migrate too!

This post is a part of WORLD BIRD WEDNESDAY!

South Hills Census near Twin Falls, Idaho

Check out my post over at Nemesis Bird for a summary of a bird census Alex and I helped out with these weekend!  We got 99 species on the count, and I added 5 new state birds!

WISN Surveys near Stutgart, AR: Snipe mini jackpot

Today started out slow, and we only had one snipe by 3:00.  Most of the habitat was too dry, even though part of our township was a flooded lowland; we just didn't have any survey transects in that area.  Waterfowl were abundant, mainly northern shovelers, gadwall, and mallards.  We also saw more flocks of greater-white fronted geese today.  On our second to last survey of the day, I started spotting individual snipe in a soybean field.  They were just barely active, bobbing up and down, and blending in so well with their surroundings.  Their activity almost went unnoticed with the breeze that was kicking up leaves, making their movement blend in.  I had one snipe alone, and then three together, and a little further down, I spotted two in my binoculars.  After focusing in on the area around them, the ground started to move with the stripes of other snipe, lurking from row to row, and sometimes darting from vegation line to the next, while grabbing a quick bite on the edge of water that was pooling in the ruts.  When looking for snipe, you really have to tell yourself to focus on things that may not be what they seem.  The stripes of a snipes back appear to be blades of grass or old crops, as does the beak when poking out from view, connected to what appears to be a lump of mud.  The snipe slowly creeped about, feeding, while only a handfull were just resting.  In total there were 39 snipe in this field, and 35 of them were in this last cluster on the low end of the field. 

In the flooded area of our township, we found this nutria while turning around from an inaccesible road.  He is no Punxatawney Phil, but I guess he will have to do for Groundhog's day.  It was sunny, so I think he saw his shadow....

nutria...invasive but cute.

We also saw this juvenile Harlan's hawk, and this pair of red-tails, that watched us survey for awhile before fleeing.

juvenile Harlan's hawk

red-tailed hawks

On a sad note, we found this juvenile cooper's hawk dead on a telephone pole.  For some reason, this pole is covered in mesh, and I suspect it had something to do with conducting electricity through the bird.  Unfortunately his talons got caught in the mesh, and like 3 red-tails I saw in NE and KS, got stuck to the pole. This body looked to be at least a week old.  If anyone knows why this pole is covered in mesh, I would be curious to know.

juvenile cooper's hawk

wire mesh