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