You Never Know What You’ll See

As we all learned in high school science, there are certain basic laws of physics, like the law of gravity, for example. I have come to the conclusion that there is an additional law of physics for birders who are photographers: If you don’t take along your camera, you will wish that you had. That maxim was confirmed today.  Therefore, the picture that accompanies this blog (with the exception of the iPhone photo) was not taken today.

Today was the very first survey of this season’s East Cascades Audubon Winter Raptor Survey project. Today we drove the Mansfield route, which is 94 miles long.

I drive a relatively small car. And because it was full of tires on wheels (that’s another story for another time) and we took three people on the survey, there was not good space to safely stash our cameras with their big lenses while we drove to the beginning of our survey route, 72 miles away.

So we did not bring our cameras.

At the beginning of our route, we spotted a NOHA and a RTHA in the trees across the road. A good start, we thought! Even so, for the next 52 miles we saw nothing! Absolutely nothing! We were thinking that we would chalk today up as just having a lovely ride in the countryside. The skies were clear, the sun was shining, it was a beautiful autumn day. And we were seeing nothing at all, except a smattering of ravens.

Then, 52 miles from the beginning of the route, we turned onto Rd. K NE, and everything changed.

It was as though the avian alarm clock had shattered the silence and everyone woke up! Within the first mile we saw one NOHA, and then another! We saw a total of four RLHA‘s within the four mile length of that road. A mile further on we picked up another NOHA and another RLHA. 

As we headed into Mansfield, we once again looked for the Merlin that we know lives there. Looking around the grain elevators, we thought we had spotted him sitting up on a pole. We weren’t sure of the ID, so wanted to get closer. Fortunately he just sat there and looked at us as we drew up. Definitely a Merlin! We were glad for the find! Between Mansfield and the north end of Jameson Lake we picked up a RTHA, an AMKE, and another RLHA. 

Exiting Mansfield, we headed to the end of our route, down southwest of the town. We hardly ever see anything these last 7 miles, but we picked up a NOHA and two more RLHAs today. We were very pleased with how the day turned out!

However, the actual highlight of our day was something we did not expect at all, and was not avian but terrestrial. 

As we were returning back on Rd K NE, we came upon a herd of pronghorn antelope! We could hardly believe our eyes, but there they were, TWENTY of them! There was an absolutely huge buck and what looked like three young and 16 females. Of course we didn’t have a camera with a good lens and only got a picture with our iPhones. But what an exciting find! Pronghorn antelope are native to the area, but were just about hunted to extinction. In 2016, the Colville Federated Tribes re-introduced 100 animals to North Central Washington, and they have been making a comeback.

Besides the pronghorn antelope, we saw fourteen mule deer, at least 100 swans and a multitude of other waterfowl on Penny Lake, Terry Hayes marsh, and Bennett Lake.

This day, indeed, proved that you never know what you’ll see. 

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 2
American Kestrel (AMKE) 1
Northern Harrier (NOHA) 5
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 8
Merlin (MERL) 1

Occasionally, NCWAS evaluates an opportunity to assist conservation work. The need may be local, within Washington State, or, as described below, international. When these opportunities arise, the NCWAS board evaluates the need and its potential outcomes relative to our mission.

When NCWS contributes funds to a worthy conservation cause we look forward to hearing how the money was used to advance a project or support a community conservation need. The story below begins with a “thank you” note that NCWAS received in January 2025. This simple note thrilled everyone on the NCWAS board. The author, Ailen Anido Escalona, provided photos along with her note. We have chosen to not show the photos to protect the identity of the youth who are shown. Trust me, the photos are great and show how our assitance to Ailen was channeled into youth education about the value of birds and their habitats.

Our thanks to Susan Sampson for writing up the following account of how NCWAS helped this project. We also appreciate that Ailen gave us permission to share her note and the story here and in the February 2025 Wild Phlox newsletter.

Sue Sampson’s article

A Five Eagle Day

Last week, we had a “One Hit Wonder.“ We drove the entire Waterville North route and saw ONE Red-tailed Hawk. That was it!

Today, we started out on the Mansfield route with a very thick cloud cover and intermittent snow. In fact, the light was so flat and the weather so bad, we didn’t get any photos worth sharing. We wondered how the day would go. Ultimately, it turned out to be rather productive. 

Our route starts up at the corner of the Bridgeport Hill Road and the N. Mansfield Road (locally known as Oil Road). We usually stop there and scan the trees across the road in the West Foster Creek Wildlife Area. This morning, the scan produced a Bald Eagle, an American Kestrel (AMKE), and a Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA). Not bad!

Terry Hayes Road is a short 1 1/3 mile road off of Highway 17 that usually has some interesting birds. The past couple of years we have seen a Great Horned Owl deep in the thicket of a Russian Olive tree. This year we have not seen him. However, the top of a fence post, practically invisible in the snow, yielded an AMKE and at the top of the basalt cliff we spotted an adult Bald Eagle.

We exited Terry Hayes Road and turned east on Highway 17. The next 11 1/2 miles are a rather intense drive. Highway 17 is a well traveled road with 18-wheelers that charge ahead like there is no tomorrow. There is no place to pull over and scan the countryside, and if you want to slow down to observe something, you keep your eyes wide open and on the road. No one is going to slow down for you! In spite of the necessity of being alert and quick, we picked up one RTHA, four AMKEs, and one Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) on that stretch.

Towards the end of our route we went south of Mansfield towards the north shore of Jameson Lake. By that time it was snowing a significant amount.  In spite of the snow, we saw two AMKEs, a Northern Harrier, and four Rough-legged Hawks (RLHA). As we turned around down by the lake to come back, we glanced over at some of the power lines going through the valley. There, sitting on a crossbar almost obliterated by the snow, was a pair of Golden Eagles. One was decidedly bigger than the other, so we figured it must be the pair that have the nest in the basalt above Bennett Lake. It was snowing quite heavily, but a photograph with a 500 mm lens confirmed the ID of the two birds.

So, these two Golden Eagles, along with the two adult Bald Eagles we saw earlier and an additional adult Golden about 3 miles north of Mansfield, equaled a Five Eagle Day. Most rewarding!

Today’s Survey:

Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 2
American Kestrel (AMKE) 9
Northern Harrier (NOHA) 1
Bald Eagle (BAEA) 2
Golden Eagle (GOEA) 3
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 5

The Bus Has Not Yet Arrived!

This past week, Amanda and I drove our first Winter Raptor Survey for the East Cascades Audubon Society.  We actually made a trip earlier in the month to scope out the roads and see about some re-routing options for when road segments might be impassable due to mud or snow.  

Last winter, we encountered roads with mud that was too deep to drive through, or snow that hadn’t been plowed. We do utilize the Douglas County Snow Plow Map to determine which roads are plowed and should be drivable. But, that doesn’t account for mud.  Last year we did a lot of navigating around mud and we wanted to create a map that would be accurate. So we headed up to the plateau and made a new map with mud/snow modifications. In the map above, the magenta sections were not drivable and the dotted red lines were where we re-routed.

This last week, we drove our first official Waterville NE survey route, and saw very little.  We were very surprised to only see four Red-tailed hawks and one American Kestrel! Not one Rough-legged hawk in sight – at least not yet. These hawks migrate south from the Arctic in the Fall. 

Last year, on November 2, we saw thirteen Rough-leggeds!  In fact, in that survey last November, we saw a total of 27 raptors!  This year we saw five.  That is why we decided that the migration bus from the far north has not yet arrived. We have two more routes to drive this month, and are hoping more will have arrived by then.

This post is from May 30, 2024.

Well, good news concerning our one kestrel nest box with eggs that contains a camera.  29 days after incubation began, the first nestling arrived on May 21^st at 5:17 am.  The little tyke is shown here a few hours after emerging from its shell:

We were lucky Mom left for a short while so that we could get this photo

Here is Mom perhaps bringing in the first meal. Hard to believe the new born could handle food so soon

In this photo we can see all 4 nestlings

Interesting facts concerning American kestrel breeding and nesting biology:

Males locate and inspect potential nest cavities within his established territory, then escorts female to them; female apparently makes selection.

Incubation mostly by female. Male contribution varies with individuals.

Female helps young out of shell, which is either trampled into nest or eaten by female.

Nestlings display sparse white down that covers pinkish skin. Prominently protruding belly nearly naked. Hatchlings appear feeble, but can raise head, open bill, and utter peep vocalizations.

All brooding is done by female; begins immediately at hatching and by 8–10 d post-hatching, female terminates diurnal brooding, returning to cavity only at night to brood or during cool and/or inclement weather.

Feeding

Chicks beg for food within first 24 h post-hatching. For first 7–10 d, male is sole provider; there-after, both parents bring food. Female accounts for about 70% of feeding visits but both parents feed young, sometimes even together. Food is delivered from dawn to dusk. 

To defecate, nestlings generally back up, raise their tails, and squirt feces onto walls of cavity. Thus, feces dry on walls and remain off nestlings, although occasionally some young are splashed without subsequent harm. High ammonia content, easily detected in active nests by observers, serves to deter bacterial build-up.

The following article was submitted by Richard Scranton, NCWAS Community Science

Since 2021, the NCW Audubon chapter has monitored American Kestrel nest boxes up on and around the Waterville Plateau. We call it The Richard Hendrick Conservation Project, named after the person who was instrumental in managing it.

In the 1980s, staff at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in Northcentral Washington placed kestrel nesting boxes on the Waterville Plateau near Mansfield, Bridgeport, and Brewster to bolster kestrel production. In 1993 Richard joined the WDFW effort as a volunteer. Over time he took on more responsibility for the project by constructing new boxes, cleaning out and maintaining old boxes, monitoring production, and banding young prior to fledging.

Eventually the project became his and remained that way until his passing in December 2020.  Over time his network included more than 250 boxes and over time he banded more than 7,000 birds.

Our Audubon chapter decided to revive this route and we spent the first year (2021) taking steps to make this a successful venture.  The effort included establishing a management team, finding volunteers, mapping box locations, and building boxes to replace those in ill repair or destroyed. 

This spring we are now monitoring over 200 boxes with 35+ volunteers. Late March is the time to ready the boxes for the new crop of Kestrels looking for a place to raise a family.

Four of our boxes contain cameras so that we can watch as the kestrels go from choosing a nest box to laying eggs and rearing young. Two of the boxes have attracted Kestrels with one of them containing 4 Kestrel eggs. The female usually lays 4-6 eggs every other day before incubating them, resulting in all the chicks hatching within 24 hours of each other.

This spring and summer I plan, along with some of the other volunteers, to periodically write about our experiences and update what we are seeing in the camera boxes during the kestrel’s breeding season.  We’ll write about mapping, data, biology, breeding cycle, odd sightings, etc.