As we turn up Pine Canyon, Amanda says, “The weather looks a little ‘iffy’ up ahead.”
“Looks like heavy clouds up towards Waterville,” I answer.
“Yep!”
I pull over to the side of the road saying, “I didn’t look at the road cams this morning. Let me take a look.”
“No! No! No! Let’s let it remain a mystery! We know we are going anyway.”
We both laugh and say, “On to the mystery!” and head up the hill. As we clear the top of the canyon, there is heavy, heavy fog. Not good. But, in less than a mile, it is gone and we can see clearly in all directions. Mystery solved!
At our survey starting point on North Oil Rd., it is 21° and there is snow everywhere. In the top of a popular tree across the road is a Bald Eagle, surveying his kingdom. We head over the hills, dropping down toward Mansfield. We disturb a coyote feasting on the remains of a deer carcass. As we approach, the coyote takes off, and the twenty Common Ravens circling above decide it’s safe to descend.
Heading east from Mansfield, we head north on Rd. H NE. We see another Bald Eagle fly over the road and land on a rock about a half mile away. As we look, we see there are two BAEAs there, and one is eating a kill. We watch them for a while. They aren’t concerned with us, we’re too far away.
Our survey two days ago had an abundance of Northern Harriers. Today they are a scarcity. Instead, we find an abundance of Rough-legged Hawks (RLHAs). You can never predict! We saw several hunting in the fields, and also sitting on power poles on Highway 17 running south from Leahy Junction.
That section of Highway 17 is hard to survey because there are very few places to pull off and observe, and the traffic rolls through like there is no tomorrow. You might be crawling along trying to watch some activity in the field and your rear-view mirror reveals a semi plowing toward you at 70 mph. Usually, along that road, I drive and Amanda birds.
When we reach Sims Corner (intersection of Highway 17 and Highway 172), we turn west and, once again, head toward Mansfield. There are many boulders called glacial erratics in this area. They are so named because glacial ice carried them hundreds of miles during the series of ice age floods that occurred here some 14-16,000 years ago. As we approach one situated right along the road, we notice a RLHA sitting on a power pole. He lifts off and flies to the erratic. Amanda has her camera out and is trying to follow him. He lands on the side of the bolder and totally disappears from sight. She can see him, because she has followed him there. I have pulled over to the side of the road and am trying to find him but don’t succeed. She has him in her sight and snaps some images. Talk about camouflage!
We decide it’s about time to eat lunch. We head north on Rd K NE and decide to stop four miles up, at a turn in the route, and eat there. On the way we spot what looks like a RLHA flying above the ridge, just next to a farm house. We watch it for a bit and also scan the trees around the house. Continuing north we stop and eat lunch, scanning the area while we do. In a bit, a big pickup truck approaches us, pulls up and the driver rolls down her window. We assume that she is wondering what we are doing out here in the middle of nowhere with our binoculars and cameras, and we are right. We explain about the Audubon Winter Raptor surveys and I ask her if she lives in the farmhouse just south, the one we were scanning. She replies, “Yes,” and I tell her that I think we spoke with her last year when she was out fixing fence. She remembers, and we have a nice chat for a few minutes. We can’t blame her for being cautious, and tell her that we will be back once a month, through March. We have met a couple other folks the same way on our route-driving, and now they know who we are.
We head into Mansfield again. A very skilled Audubon board member once told me that every small town in Eastern Washington probably has a resident Merlin. In our surveys over the past three years, we have traveled through this little town of Mansfield a total of 33 times, as well as visiting it several times just birding on our own. Every time we pass through we look for, and have never seen, a Merlin. Well, today made up for it! Today we saw a “Hot Pursuit in Mansfield!” As we passed through the main part of town, I spot a bird sitting in the top of a tall evergreen. We stop and look with the binoculars. Sure enough! A Merlin! We pull our cameras out and I snap off a few frames. Suddenly, he lifts off and pivots away down towards a dove that is flying by. They fly up and around and back like trapeze artists without the trapeze. Suffice to say, we spent the next fifteen minutes watching this Merlin dive and cavort and perform all types of aerial acrobatics trying to get some dinner. We drove all over town trying to keep him in our sights. We finally gave up trying to photograph him, as he was just too quick. Talk about turning on a dime! He turned on a pinhead! We didn’t have to worry about alarming him. He was too involved in the chase. Mansfield has some huge grain bins and a very large population of doves, pigeons, and starlings. That Merlin really worked! I hope he got some dinner, because he was using up a lot of calories trying to get it. We could have stayed there for a long time watching him, but we were losing light and still had several miles of survey route ahead. But, at least, now we know. There IS a Merlin in Mansfield!
When we arrive at the final 2.2 mile segment of the route, we find we can only drive .9 of a mile. The snowplow stopped there and the rest of the route is unplowed. Looking at the snow, I decide that I really don’t want to get stuck in it out there in the middle of nowhere. We turn around and end our survey there.
Here is a summary of what we saw:
Red-tailed Hawk 3
American Kestrel 1
Northern Harrier 3
Bald Eagle 3
Rough-legged Hawk 18
Merlin 1
Would you like to inquire about participating in ECAS Winter Raptor Surveys? Contact Jeff Fleischer at raptorrunner97321@yahoo.com