You never know what you’ll find
This season, the Raptor Ramblings will be more of a an exception, rather than the rule. I won’t be able to submit a blog after each trip, like last year. But if a raptor survey is especially interesting, or has something unique to it, I’ll post about it. The survey we did yesterday was one of those.
It’s hard to know what the weather will be like up on the Waterville plateau when you leave Wenatchee to drive a raptor survey. Whether it’s sunny or foggy in Wenatchee has nothing to do with what the weather is like up there.
As we drove the 62 miles from home to the start of the survey route, we encountered patches of intense fog and areas of sunshine. We knew this day would be interesting because it’s hard to count birds in the fog! We just hoped we could see some. We counted eight or nine Buteos as we drove to the survey start point, so we felt encouraged.
As we wound around the town of Mansfield, and north, we did see a number of Rough-legged and Red-tailed hawks as well as a couple American kestrels. But, then, the road dipped down almost 500 feet in elevation, past Mary Jane Hill, down to the valley of East Foster Creek and Highway 17. The fog was thick and we wondered how we could see anything.
As we traveled Highway 17, we seriously contemplated skipping Terry Hayes Road. Terry Hayes is a little road 1 1/2 miles in length. We never see anything down that road except one Golden eagle who lives there. We definitely wanted to count the G0EA, but with the fog this thick we doubted we could even see him. As we approached the turn off, we noticed the fog seem to thin out a bit and we spotted a Red-tailed hawk near the turn off. That changed our minds and we decided to run out the mile and a half to see what we could see. Good decision! In that little a mile and a half, we saw five Rough-legged hawks, two Red-tail hawks, and a Prairie falcon! We wished we had brought our cameras with us! One of the Rough-leggeds sat on a fence post very close to us, and just stared for the longest time. We could’ve gotten some really great shots. But at least we saw him!
As we wound around on Highway 17, south to Sims Corner, and then east to Mansfield, we picked up more Buteos. Then we turned south towards the north end of Jameson lake. Wow! We couldn’t believe our eyes. It seems like every third or fourth power pole had a raptor on it. In the 9 miles from the town of Mansfield, down to the north end of Jameson Lake we saw two Red-tailed hawks, two American kestrels, SIXTEEN Rough-legged hawks, and one Golden eagle! As we were driving out, nearing the town of Mansfield, a bird flew on to a power pole. We slammed on the brakes to look at it. There it sat, looking back at us. A gyrfalcon! In the very same place, we had spotted one 2 years ago!
So, fog or no fog, you never know what you’ll find. And, don’t skip Terry Hayes Road!
Today’s Survey:
Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA) 10
American Kestrel (AMKE) 4
Golden Eagle (GOEA) 1
Rough-legged Hawk (RLHA) 31
Prairie Falcon (PRFA) 1
Gyrfalcon (GYRF) 1
Additional wildlife we saw today, not on the survey:
RTHA & RLHA 10
Horned Larks (HOLA) approximately 100
Common Raven (CORA) approximately 35
Ring-necked pheasant (RNEP) 1
Gray partridge (GRAP) 25
Mule deer 15