We really wanted to find a Snowy Owl today, and were beginning to wonder if we would have any luck.  Then, on Heritage Road, at what seemed like a million miles away, we spotted one.  At least we got one for the books!

After driving many miles, I was wondering if today was going to be a “One Hit Wonder” type of day. We stopped beside the Vernal (non-existant) Ponds to eat our lunch, and along came a Northern Harrier, bobbing along the grasslands and taking a couple of dives trying get something to eat.  That was encouraging, as we hadn’t seen any on the last survey.

It did feel like a very empty day with not spotting the usual raptors.  Then, we turned onto Highway 17, that very busy road with huge semi trucks going 70 miles an hour and nowhere for us to pull off. In the middle of all this hustle and bustle, the buteos came in. We had a hard time identifying them as we dodged the traffic and they flew from pole to tree to pole.

“OK, I’ve got the one in the tree. Can you keep your eye on that one on the pole up ahead.?”

“Got it!“

“Oh, there are TWO in the tree, and one flying overhead. The one overhead has carpal patches.”

“One in the tree took off.”

“Do you see dark patagials?”

“Yes! And a belly band.”

And so the conversation continued. 

In what seemed like a pretty small area, we picked up five Red-tailed Hawks and seven Rough-legged Hawks in not much time. We also spotted one Prairie Falcon in the vicinity.

  Even though it’s not a raptor, we did spot the first Western Meadowlark we had seen this year.

Driving along on the road to Mold, and the Hawk Rock (see last month’s blog), there is a very interesting barn.  We keep thinking that one stiff wind will blow it over.  But, it still stands.

Here is a summary of what we saw today:
Red-tailed Hawk. 7
Northern Harrier. 1
Rough-legged Hawk. 7
Prairie Falon 1
Snowy Owl. 1

This seemed like a very long day! 

It started out with beautiful weather. It ended with beautiful weather. We drove past miles and miles of beautiful, snow covered, fields. But, raptors?  What raptors? The numbers were certainly down! 

We saw five Rough-legged Hawks and one Red-Tailed Hawk!  In 94 miles!  That’s one raptor every 15 miles. We did see one other raptor, which I’ll get to in a bit. No American Kestrels. No Northern Harriers. In Mansfield, the resident Merlin did not show its face. 

Even though we scanned every single rock pile and every single field we drove by, there were no Snowy Owls and no Gyrfalcons. It was one of those days.

We saw seven mule deer on a route where we usually see 20 to 30. But we did see one pheasant fly across the road, three porcupines sleeping In trees and three coyotes!

As we drove the absolute LAST quarter mile of this survey route, we pulled up short and said, “What’s THAT?!” Our heads turned to see a VERY large bird sitting on a rock not far from the road. We both said, “He’s huge!” 

I stopped the car, got out to retrieve my camera from the backseat (which I had put away because I thought we were finished), and hoped it didn’t fly away before I got to take a picture. It sat there for a few seconds while I snapped a couple photos and then it lifted off and away it went. 

At first glance I thought it was a Golden Eagle. On second thought, maybe a subadult Bald Eagle.  I knew I’d have to get the pictures home and look at them on my computer before I could figure out what I was looking at.

After arriving home, I downloaded the pictures to my computer and dug out my hawk books. I am really inexperienced when it comes to Golden Eagles.  I have only seen one about 4-5 times in my life, and don’t feel at all confident about identifying them, or differentiating between a Golden and a subadult Bald Eagle. After reading and looking at all the pictures, I thought it was a first or second year Bald Eagle.

I sent an email asking for help to Jeff Fleischer, of East Cascades Audubon Society, who is running the raptor survey project, and also posted some pictures on the Raptor ID FaceBook group. I want to thank Jeff and the folks in the Raptor ID group for their help in learning how to ID this bird. I really appreciate it.

What we have here is a subadult (probably 1-2 year) Bald Eagle.  Here is the criteria on which this judgement was made.

It has a large head and beak, larger than a GOEA.

The dark eyes are starting to lighten.

The nape is sharp, two-toned (indicting having molted), as distinct from the dark back.

There are no feathers on feet (tarsi).

The mottled white on the underwing and body is characteristic of a subadult BAEA.  There is too much white for a subadult GOEA.

The tail was mottled.  It did not have the definitive white band with black terminal band of a subadult GOEA.

Here is a summary of what we saw today:
Rough-legged Hawk – 5
Red-tailed Hawk – 1
Bald Eagle: subadult – 1

The lights were on, but no one was home!

It started out as a beautiful day, with lots of sunshine. So, the lights were on in the lower part of the Grand Coulee. But there didn’t seem to be anyone around! It seemed like either everyone was hunkered down or they were over visiting the neighbors! Even after stopping at multiple pull-outs and looking in all of the windows in this 20 mile long, coulee-corridor, house, there didn’t seem to be any visible raptors. We scanned the fields, scanned the basalt walls, scanned the sky over and over again. All of that activity yielded one Rough-legged Hawk. 

When you are standing on the coulee floor, the ridge top of the basalt cliffs is very far away! You look for a little bump along the ridge line, or perhaps a bird flying in front of the basalt. As we reached the south end of Alkali Lake, it did seem like there was a bump on the top of the ridge line. I pulled out my binoculars, but could not ID it, other than it was a bird – a good sized one. So I pulled out my camera and took some photos, hoping that when I got back to my computer and enlarged them, I could make a firm identification. And sure enough! We had a Golden Eagle!

For the entire day we did not see one American Kestrel, Bald Eagle, or Northern Harrier! I thought for sure with the sunlight we would see more activity. But not so!

All of the lakes in the Lower Coulee are still frozen over. They are beautiful to look at! The snow really hasn’t diminished a whole lot since last month.

Up on the flat farmland, east of Coulee City there was still a lot of snow. And the roads that were not plowed last month are still not plowed this month, more or less. There were a couple secondary roads that someone had driven on.  But they did not entice me enough to chance getting stuck up there in the middle of nowhere.

There is a cool, old abandoned barn south of Hartline. A couple of months ago, Amanda and I stopped and walked in a bit, and saw a Great-horned Owl take off from inside the barn. We actually saw him two months in a row. But, he did not show himself today.

Here is a summary of what was seen today.

Red-tailed Hawk 5
Rough-legged Hawk 7
Golden Eagle 1