They Finally Showed Up!

“Whoop! Whoop! Whoop! Stop! Stop!”

Don was yelling from the backseat.

“There’s a Snowy right behind us! In that rock pile, right there!”

I slammed on the brakes and looked in the rearview mirror, but saw nothing. I started to back up when he exclaimed, “Oh! There! He took off.”

We turned around in our seats and watched the Snowy Owl fly off to the southeast.  Well, we just had to find him! So I turned the car around and headed back east.  In about a half a mile, we came to the closest farmhouse and a farm road heading south.  We turned the corner and didn’t have to go too far before we found him, sitting on a rock pile in the middle of the field.  We set up our tripods and tried to get some photos.

That was the second Snowy Owl we had seen that day.  I had been watching the eBird postings for quite a while, waiting to see if any had been spotted.  Usually they arrive in this area in the beginning of January, but here it was past the middle of February. So, when they showed up on eBird, there was nothing to do but drive the Dry Falls Survey route and see if we could put one or more one our count list.  We are hoping when we return for our last survey in March, that the Snowys will still be there.  After all, they were late arriving, so they should stay longer.

The first Snowy we found was relatively close to the road and didn’t seem to mind the handful of people snapping away with their cameras.  After we stayed there for a bit, we headed along our route, keeping our eyes pealed.  Sure enough, about a mile east, we spotted another about 1/4 mile out in the field. 

Too far to get a good picture, but close enough to get a positive identification. We were happy! 

Another bonus to that area was the fact that Spring migration has started and there were two Merlins cavorting in the air and buzzing the Snowy.  They are way too quick to get a photo, but we were happy to see them.

As we approached those fields between St. Andrews and the Vernal (non) Ponds, we again were met with a number of Northern Harriers. 

They seem to really like that place!  And just a little further we came upon four Rough-legged Hawks.

We have one more month of Winter Raptor Surveys and we haven’t spotted a Gyrfalcon yet.  EBird says they have been seen in the area, so we are keeping our eyes open.  Of course, since they are a sensitive species, we don’t know exactly where they have been observed. We just have a general idea and we know where we have seen them before.  So, we hope to still spot one.

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk  4
American Kestrel  1
Northern Harrier  7
Rough-legged Hawk  9
Prairie Falcon  2
Merlin 2
Snowy Owl 3

Caught Between the Fog and the Mud

There’s an old saying that states “The third time’s the charm.” But we’re not so sure. 

The first time this month we attempted to survey the Waterville route, we ran into a wall of fog at the top of Pine Canyon. We were hoping we could drive out of it, but no such luck. So we turned around and headed home.  It’s kind of hard to count raptors when you’re in the middle of a white out.

The next day looked better, so we headed out again. This time we got as far as the actual starting point of the route, but again the fog rolled in. We drove on for 13 more miles, but it got thicker and thicker. Once again, we turned around and headed home.

With only four more days in the month, we were running out of time. The weather forecast for that time span was dismal. But, Monday’s prediction was 40% rain. We thought that was our best shot. 

So, IS the third time the charm? We doubted it. We were fine until we reached the top of Pine Canyon where we once again encountered the big white monster. Since there was nothing else to do and we were running out of time, we kept driving. We drove 17 miles through thick, oppressive, blinding, whiteness.

Finally, as we headed toward Lamoine, we left the fog and spotted the first raptor of the day, a Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA)!

“We’re on the board!”

As we headed north toward the McNeil Canyon Road and turned east on the paved road, we thought we were home free! Well… not exactly. We leave the paved road and embark on what is locally known as Mud Springs Road. Now we are in the middle of a mucky, wet, fishtailing, gravel road. I do believe there’s a reason they call it Mud Springs Road! As we approach Division we are supposed to turn left and head up toward Dyer Hill. One look at that road and we knew we’d have to make a detour.

We consult the map and decide we will drive one mile south and then backtrack up to the other end of the road we can’t get through. We’ll see how far we can go. So we drive an extra 11 miles and eliminate 4 miles of mud. 

In all that backtracking and circumventing, we pick up one more (RLHA).

Once we get back to Highway 172 and head west and south again, we pick up three more RLHAs, a couple Northern Kestrels, a Red-tailed Hawk, and even one Golden Eagle!

From Withrow we head west on Rd 8 NW and pick up four more RLHAs! Yippee! 

The route turns south on Rd F NW and once again we encounter mud.  This mud doesn’t look as deep or as treacherous as the last road, so I decide to give it a try. We drive a couple hundred feet and the road is squishy, mucky and we are fishtailing. I stop and look at the map and see how many miles we have to go on this road.  Five, and then we turn into another unpaved, gravel road for five more! I decide THAT’S not going to work!

So it’s time to turn around.  In the muck, and the squish, with soft shoulders! No three-point turns here! It was more like a 10 point turn with a little fishtailing and a lot of four-wheel-drive maneuvering. But we escaped!

So that little maneuver involved a 13 mile detour and an elimination of 10 miles of mud. We made it to the end of the route without getting stuck in the mud or getting blinded by the bright white fog. 

However, I don’t know that I would go as far as to say that, “The third time’s the charm.“

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 1
American Kestrel (AMKE) 2
Golden Eagle (GOEA) 1
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 11
Unidentified Buteo 1 (Too far away to determine)

A Case of Mistaken Identity

We decided that January was the month we would find our Gyrfalcon. In the past five years we have spotted a GYRF five times, three times in January and twice in November. We hadn’t seen one this year, so we decided that it was time!

As we drove our survey route, all the time hoping for a GYRF, we saw a wide variety of other raptors and wildlife. The road leading to Penny Lake has yielded coyotes before and it did not disappoint today! Two beautiful specimens were running across the field, heading west. I would’ve loved to have gotten a photo of them, but my big lens is in the repair shop. So any photos I take will be on another day. 

The Penny Lake road always has at least one visitor, sometimes several. Today it had only one, an American Kestrel. We could have called this survey, “The Day of the Kestrel,” as the entire day yielded a total of ten American Kestrels, a survey high for us.

As we continued on our survey route we picked up a few other birds of prey. The Prairie Falcon that lives just east of Mansfield made an appearance. We wove our way down Mary Jane Hill to the East Foster Creek valley and to Terry Hayes Road. Terry Hayes usually produces a wealth of interesting creatures. But today, no one was home. The Great Horned Owl was not in its tree, the porcupines had not returned, and the Golden Eagle we frequently see above the basalt was not there.

As we headed east, through Leahy Junction, south to Simms Corner, and west, we picked up a respectable seven birds: two Red-tailed Hawks, three American Kestrels, one Rough-legged Hawk and one sub-adult Bald Eagle.

And then we turned north from Highway 172 – Gyrfalcon territory! This is an area where we have spotted three Gyrfalcons in years past. Our hopes were high! We had our eyes peeled! We did see one Rough-legged Hawk sitting on a rock pile, but we were on the hunt for a Gyr!

And then, a couple miles north of the highway, there it was! I braked to a stop in the middle of the road (you can do that up there in the middle of nowhere, on the Waterville plateau). 

“What do you see?”

“There on that rock pile!  What is that?”  Three pair of binoculars lift to three pair of eyes to examine the bird, who is quite a distance away.

“It’s really big! Is it a PRFA (Prairie Falcon)?”

“That’s bigger than any PRFA I’ve ever seen!”

“Maybe it’s a GYRF! Maybe we found our GYRF!”  We spent several minutes looking, squinting, discussing what we were looking at.

“It’s the right color.  It’s the right shape. Can’t really see the facial markings.“

“And, it’s really big.”

Since neither Amanda nor I had our cameras, I turned to Don in the backseat. “Can you snap a picture?” But, he is already lifting his camera. We look at the tiny image on the LCD screen, but it’s too small to really tell. We know we’ll have to put it on a computer screen and enlarge it to really see what we’ve got. But we’re hopeful… Maybe we found our GYRF… 

We backtrack to Highway 172 and head west to Mansfield. We drive around in town looking for the Merlin, but he is hiding. We then head south toward the north end of Jameson Lake. This road usually has quite a few inhabitants, and is the second place where we have seen a Gyrfalcon in the past. Today there is no GYRF sitting on power pole.  However, we did pick up four Red-tails, six Kestrels, and four Rough-leggeds.

Post Survey: The picture on Don‘s camera revealed a Prairie Falcon. We all agreed it looked very large for a Prairie Falcon. Maybe it was wishful thinking that made it appear so big. But, it really did look that big!  I sent the photo for confirmation to an Audubon friend who is a wildlife biologist. Secretly, I was still hoping it might be a GYRF. But no such a luck. She said because it was large it could have been a female and puffed up against the cold.  

So… We’ll wait for February. Maybe in February we’ll also see a Snowy Owl. We haven’t seen one of those yet this year, either.

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 6
American Kestrel (AMKE) 10
Northern Harrier (NOHA) 2
Bald Eagle – Sub-Adult (BAEA) 1
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 9
Prairie Falcon (PRFA) 2

Coyotes  2
Mule deer  2

The Douglas County Raptor Convention

The first thing we do in the morning, when embarking on a new survey, is to check the weather on the WSDOT traffic cameras up on the Waterville plateau. If the camera shows that everything is totally enveloped in fog, then we abort our plans for doing a survey that day. You can’t see very many birds in dense fog. 

At present, there are only two cameras that cover any of our routes, one on the south end of Waterville (looking west) and the other at the Waterville airport. There is an additional camera at Simms corner (SR 17 and SR 172), but it has not been working for about three years. I have written three separate emails to WSDOT explaining our use of the camera and asking if someone could repair it. I don’t think it is very high on their priority list. I have mentioned in previous blogs about times we have headed out to do a survey, and got up on the plateau and had to turn around because of the heavy, heavy fog.

But today… 

Today, there was some heavy fog at the very top of Badger Mountain, but as we dropped down the other side towards Waterville things cleared up. There were heavy clouds very high overhead, but we could see for miles and miles.  The sun was peeking through a break in the clouds in the east. We knew visibility would be just fine.

We were encouraged when the very beginning of our route yielded three American Kestrels (AMKE), one Northern Harrier (NOHA) and one Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA)! However, our route then takes a big loop, going south from Highway 2, then west to almost the edge of Moses Coulee and turning north again back to Highway 2.  On that loop we saw nothing.

We continued east to the area of Atkins Lake (which is a non-lake at present), ending up around the area where we normally see the Snowy Owls. They aren’t here yet. We usually don’t see them until January.

Leaving the Atkins Lake area, we ventured north towards Saint Andrews and west to Saint Andrews Lake and the Vernal Ponds. This year Saint Andrews Lake is very small and the Vernal Ponds are non-existent. We are hoping that coming years will bring more snow so that those flooded fields return. They have a huge assortment of waterfowl in the spring and summer when there is water present.

But, back to the winter raptors…

We decided there must have been a winter gathering of all of the avian hunters. As we headed north we saw four raptors on a short side road, an AMKE, a NOHA, a RLHA and a Bald Eagle (BAEA).

As we headed north to the Saint Andrews intersection, we had to be careful that we were counting individuals and not double counting! The next road produced three raptors, the next road one, and the next road two.

When we got to the intersection by Saint Andrews Lake it was almost like they were exploding out of the woodwork! Between there and around the corner to the Vernal Ponds we kept counting and recounting to make sure we were not counting the same bird twice! 

“There’s a NOHA!”

“No, we already counted that one.”

“No, there’s the first one, this is another!”

“There’s a Roughy (our shorthand speak for a RLHA). There’s another!”

“There are two more over here!”

We couldn’t believe it! In a short stretch of road (about 3 miles) we counted one RTHA,  five NOHAs, another BAEA and EIGHT RLHAs. We decided the Raptors were having a convention in the Saint Andrews area.

We then headed east and went to the east side of SR 17.  As we turned the corner at Mold we could see a bird perched in the top of a tree next to the old abandoned house. We weren’t sure if it was a Prairie Falcon or a Merlin at that distance. Amanda got out and started walking up with her camera while I waited back in the car. She was able to get pretty close to it and identify it as a Merlin before it took off. 

One enjoyable aspect of driving these survey routes is that you get to meet some of the people who live along the route. When we left the house at Mold, we drove the rest of the way on that road, which dead ends at a farmer’s house. We’ve talked to him before and explained about our surveys. He’s always very friendly. Today, as we headed in to his road, he was heading out, so we both stopped and rolled down our windows.

Smiling, he said, “Well, it looks like it’s that time of year again, isn’t it?” 

So, we reiterated that he would be seeing us once a month, November through March. He asked us if we had seen any Sage Grouse, to which we replied that we had never seen Sage Grouse on our winter survey routes. He then began to tell us all about his participation in gathering data for Sage Grouse conservation efforts. It was really interesting and encouraging to hear this farmer talk about restoring habitat and Sage Grouse populations in the area.

We kept on driving our route, picking up an RTHA here, a NOHA here, and an RLHA there until we got to the end. Other creatures of interest were 16 Mule Deer and two Northern Shrikes. A very satisfactory day and survey!

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 3
American Kestrel (AMKE) 8
Northern Harrier (NOHA) 11
Bald Eagle – Adult (BAEA) 2
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 18
Merlin (MERL) 1

Migration Settles In

We tried to drive the Mansfield survey route earlier in the week. However, we got as far as Withrow and had to turn around, skunked out by the fog. It’s just about impossible to count raptors when you can’t even see 20 feet in front of your vehicle. We knew we would have to come back another day and drive that route. 

This morning Amanda and I both had items on our schedule. But the sun was shining! It looked like a great day! So, Amanda called me at 9 AM and said, “Do you want to run out and do a survey?“  It was a little late to get started, but we decided to give it a go. We stopped at a gas station to fill up the car, ran in the grocery store to get something for lunch, and headed north. We didn’t take our cameras because we had such a late start. Also, my big lens was having focus problems and isn’t repaired yet.

We stopped at the starting point to our route to write down the time, temperature, and weather conditions. Immediately, we looked up and saw a subadult Bald Eagle (we thought a three-year-old) and an American Kestrel. What a great way to start a survey!

As we headed down the road toward Penny Lake, we encountered two American Kestrels. The lake is starting to freeze over now and there was no waterfowl to be found.

As we headed through Mansfield the first time (we drive through town three times on this survey) we looked for the resident Merlin, but did not see it. Heading from Mansfield north, through Mary Jane Hill, and down into the Foster Creek drainage, we picked up a couple Rough-legged Hawks and another American Kestrel

We turned onto Terry Hayes Road, a little treasure of 3 1/2 miles. That road always has something interesting. But not today. No eagles, no hawks, no porcupines. Even the resident Great Horned Owl didn’t show its face. Maybe next month…

Heading down Highway 17, towards Simms corner, the usual suspects showed up… no one. That road is so busy we very rarely see any birds along it. We did see one Rough-legged Hawk.

We then covered the territory going west towards Mansfield and south to the north end of Jameson Lake. We looked for the Merlin again as we drove through Mansfield, but did not spot it. However, between leaving Simms corner and arriving at the north end of Jameson Lake, we spotted four Rough-legged Hawks, nine Red-tailed Hawks, one Northern Harrier and a Prairie Falcon.

Returning back from the lake, we drove through the town of Mansfield for the third time. And there, flying away from the school, across the road, right in front of us, was the Merlin! Merlin was the last sighting of the day and a great way to end the survey!

At the end of our survey route we headed home. As we were coming down the west side of Badger Mountain, the sun sank behind the hills and we arrived back home in the middle of blue hour.

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk 9
American Kestrel 6
Northern Harrier 1
Bald Eagle (3 year old sub-adult)
Rough-legged Hawk 7
Prairie Falcon 1
Merlin 1

A Trip Down the Tumbleweed Turnpike

Today was Thanksgiving 2023. We decided to forgo the turkey and headed out to do our last winter raptor survey for November. However, instead of turkeys, we ran into tumbleweeds! Scores of tumbleweeds!

Last week, Amanda and I started out to conduct our survey, but when we got to the east side of Moses Coulee,  the fog rolled in so thickly we couldn’t see 30 feet in front of ourselves.  There really was nothing to do but turn around and go home. Today was an absolutely beautiful, sunny day and we decided this was a good day to go back and drive the survey route. 

But, the wind! The wind was unbelievable! When you stopped the car, you could hardly open the door. And I think every tumbleweed that originated on the north end of the plateau came barreling down the wheat fields, over the sage, and the roads that we were driving. They were everywhere! We were constantly playing dodgeball with the tumbleweeds.

Because of stiff wind, we were afraid the birds would really be hunkered down and we wouldn’t see many. For the first half of the day, we saw no Northern Harriers at all. But when we stopped to eat our lunch, they started to creep out. As the day went on, they came out one by one, and by the end of the day, we had counted six.

In addition to the raptors, we were happy to see a very healthy looking coyote.  He stopped to look at us several time as he trotted away. 

Just south of the Vernal Ponds we saw a group of Mule Deer.

We were also wondering what had happened to the Red-tailed hawks.  They just weren’t showing and we wondered if we were going to start singing that song, “Where have all the Red-tails gone?“ But eventually, one showed up, and then another. We ended the day with three.

However, the Rough-legged hawks!  They were a different story!  They came to play… and to hunt. 

Rough-leggeds travel all the way down from the Arctic tundra, literally hundreds upon hundreds of miles. They weren’t bothered by the mere 30 mile-per-hour winds.

They were kiting! They were hunting! They were everywhere! Altogether we counted 22.

In addition, we saw four American Kestrels and two Prairie Falcons. 

We were happy that the Tumbleweed Turnpike didn’t deter the raptor population.

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk  3
American Kestrel  4
Northern Harrier  6
Rough-legged Hawk  22
Prairie Falcon  2

Migration Madness

This month’s raptor survey started with a bang. And it just kept going! Fall migration is in full swing and all the players were out. In addition to the raptors, we saw a wide variety of waterfowl, one coyote and forty-one mule deer.

It’s pretty rare to see something right at the beginning of our survey route. One year we did see a Bald Eagle, but he was definitely the exception.  This month, we stopped at the  beginning of our route, I zeroed out the odometer, Amanda recorded the weather and time and we took a look around. Immediately, we saw an American Kestrel watching us from a power line, as well as two Red-tailed Hawks (RTHA) and one Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA).  And, from that point it just kept going.

Not too far along the route we turned on the road that goes to Penny Lake.

Because the lake was not frozen, there were still a lot of waterfowl on the water: Mallards, Redheads, Ring-necks, Coots, and about eight Trumpeter swans.

Also along that road we saw a RTHA, two RLHAs and a Prairie falcon, carrying its lunch.

Heading south towards Mansfield, we picked up more RTHAs  and more RLHAs. We went into town looking for the Merlin who resides there, but did not find him.

From Mansfield, our route goes east and heads down Mary Jane Hill to the Foster River valley which holds Highway 17. Not too far along, is one of our favorite turnoffs, Terry Hayes Road. It’s less than 3 1/2 miles long but there’s always something interesting to see there. Further along in the winter there will be porcupines sleeping in the trees. This time, we picked up RTHAs and RLHAs and looked for the Great Horned Owl that we have seen several times.

We looked at the tree where it has been found previously and almost missed it! But, there it was! Perfectly camouflaged! A brown and white owl hiding among brown and white branches is easy to miss!

We don’t usually see much as we travel east and south on Highway 17. It’s a heavily traveled road, and it’s always been my feeling that there were so many cars, that the birds stayed away. But this time, we picked up SIX RTHAs!

And looking out the side window what did we see but a Northern Goshawk! He was very distinct with his body coloration and his white eyebrow. A first for both of us! Unfortunately, there was too much traffic for us to stop and get a photo.

I have read that when RLHAs migrate they will frequently migrate together in small groups.  As we headed south out of Mansfield, going towards the north end of Jameson Lake, we observed this. At one point, the road makes a sharp turn to the south, and to the east another road goes off to Grimes Lake. From that location, within a circle with a radius of about a quarter mile, we counted nine individual RLHAs. NINE! We couldn’t believe it! 

And then, looking in the direction of Grimes Lake, just past where the RLHAs were, we saw two Golden eagles soaring in the sky, one adult and one sub-adult. There is a Golden eagle nest in the basalt above Bennett Lake, so it’s not unusual to see Goldens here.

We backtracked to Mansfield where we once again looked for the Merlin, without success. And just like that, the raptors were gone. The remaining nine miles of our route did not produce one more raptor. It seems that our survey ended the same way it started… with a bang.

Here is a summary of what was seen:

Golden Eagle 2 (one adult and one sub-adult)
Red-tailed Hawk 18
Rough-legged Hawk 18
Goshawk 1
Great Horned Owl 1
American Kestrel 3
Prairie Falcon 1

One Last Dance

The last dance of the 22/23 Winter Raptor Survey Season took place this past Friday. Not everyone attended, but there were a few who got out. 

Thankfully, the contingent from Penny Lake Road never fails us. This year there was a Red-tailed Hawk decked out in beautiful rufous colors and a subadult Bald Eagle strutting his stuff as he glided through the sky overhead.

Penny Lake was still frozen, but some of the marshy areas attached to it were beginning to thaw at the edges. A small variety of water fowl are returning.

As we ventured south into Mansfield, a couple more Red-tailed Hawks joined the group. At the very beginning of the season, the Merlin who resides in the town of Mansfield was in attendance, showing off all his fancy footwork. But he did not show for this last dance.

Along the way, we saw what appeared to be an avian duplex! We wondered how they liked living so closely together.

Another favorite place on this route is the road going south from Mansfield to North Jameson Lake. We spotted a pair of American Kestrels, sitting on the sidelines. However, the Gyrfalcon who appeared early in the season decided to stay away.

At the very beginning of the season, thirty one members of the Rough-legged Hawk family showed up. But, today they had dwindled down to four.

Our friends from Terry Hayes Road were not in attendance either. The exception was one solitary male Northern Harrier that skirted the edge of the valley and then departed to the south. The Great-horned Owl, who spent most of the winter ensconced in the inner safety of a huge tree, was gone. The Golden Eagle who resides in the basalt cliff must have had other plans. And the porcupines had departed for the year.

But, a wonderful surprise as we drove north on Road H NE toward Mary Jane Hill and the valley of East Foster Creek! We passed a farm with a row of tall Ponderosa Pines and there we came across a pair of Rough-legged Hawks dancing a final waltz. We stood in the road and just watched them glide above us. A very fitting Last Dance of the Season!

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 4
American Kestrel (AMKE) 3
Northern Harrier (NOHA) 2
Bald Eagle – Subadult (BAEA) 1
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 4

Well, that was unexpected.

Ever since that very sharp, cold snap we had at the beginning of December we have not seen very many raptors on our surveys.  The last three surveys have yielded very few birds, so we were really not expecting to see much of anything. We had figured they all flew south. For today’s survey, my daughter, Amanda was out of town. I was happy that our friend, Don Zones, was willing to ride along to add an extra pair of eyes to the endeavor of counting birds. 

As we traveled toward Penny Lake, the skies were clear and a beautiful blue. The lake was frozen and a solitary Bald Eagle perched on a power pole, watching us approach.

Across the lake, there was a coyote with some kind of a small kill. The ravens were harassing it, wanting to snatch away the prey.

Finally, the coyote picked it up and hauled it off, the ravens following.

As drove south toward the town of Mansfield, we saw what seemed to be an extremely large coyote in the snow. At first we thought it might be a wolf. The occasional member of the Okanogan wolf pack will venture quite far afield from time to time and they have been spotted in the area before. But photos taken of this individual showed that he had the very tall pointed ears, long narrow snout, and long bushy tail of the coyote. A very healthy coyote!

We traveled east, towards Road H and then northeast around Bell Butte, past Mary Jane Hill, and down to Highway 17 in the valley of East Foster Creek. By then the fog had rolled in and visibility was becoming very limited. We wondered how Terry Hayes Road would be and if it would even be worth driving out.

But, Terry Hayes Road always has something to share! This is the only place we have ever seen porcupines. No, they are not winter raptors, but they are very fascinating! The previous two months did not yield any sightings. However, this month we came upon one very close to the road. About 30 feet up in the tree, he seemed to be in a very deep sleep, and did not stir at all while we walked around taking pictures.

As we were driving out, with porcupines on the brain, we spotted a tree with a mass, seemingly attached to a center trunk. We stopped the car and studied it with our binoculars. I was looking for a porcupine and did not see anything that resembled that. But there was a type of pattern that reminded me of feathers.

Don trudged through the snow to get a little closer and determined that it was an owl! A Great Horned Owl! Talk about camouflage!

The day progressed, still shrouded in fog. We picked up a handful of Rough-legged Hawks, a couple of Red-tailed Hawks, a Prairie Falcon and two Northern Harriers. As we drove down toward the north end of Jameson Lake, we commented about the Golden Eagle nest that we knew was located in the basalt cliff above Bennett Lake. But it was totally invisible in the fog. In spite of that, one of the power poles along the road yielded a Golden Eagle and not too far away we spotted a subadult Bald Eagle.

Out of a day where we didn’t expect very much at all, we saw a wide variety of raptors and other creatures. A good day!

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 2
Northern Harrier (NOHA) 2
Bald Eagle – Adult (BAEA) 1
Bald Eagle – Subadult (BAEA) 1
Golden Eagle (GOEA) 1
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 7
Prairie Falcon (PRFA) 1
Great Horned Owl (GHOW) 1