Here’s something we did not experience this survey season… fog. 

When we started driving the Winter Raptor surveys in 2019, we ran two surveys each month, March through November, for a total of ten surveys per season. Occasionally, we would head out to drive towards the start of our survey route, only to find when we got there, or even before, that the fog was so thick we couldn’t see across the road.  Much less see any raptors (See photo above from a previous year).

This year, we added an additional route, for a total of 15 separate surveys for the season, and did not once encounter fog! Yippee! That made us very happy! Rather surprised… but very happy. There’s nothing like driving 60 miles to the start of your route only to find you can’t see across the road and have to go back home to try it another day. We are very thankful that did not happen this year!

This was the last survey for the 2021/2022 winter survey season. It’s obvious that the seasons are changing. The small islands located in the Grand Coulee lake chain are covered with gulls.

The snow is gone, the hills are turning green, the birds are providing aerial acrobatics, and we found only one Rough-legged Hawk. 

Highway 17 going north through Grand Coulee saw a lot more activity than in previous trips, and that included vehicular traffic! Everyone was on the road, and everyone was in a hurry! Fortunately, the road through the Coulee has lots of pull outs and places you can stop. I think we used them all.

Between SR 17 and US 2, we saw eight Red-tailed Hawks, six of them in pairs.  At the north end of Soap Lake we saw a pair of Falcons flipping and turning high above us. They were too fast to get a picture or a good enough look to positively identify them. But they definitely had the angular, pointed wings and checkerboard underwings of a member of the falcon family. Along Park Lake an adult Bald Eagle watched our every move.

As we headed east across the Dry Falls Dam, we were surprised to still see ice along the edges of Banks Lake. We found a funny Canada Goose stepping along the ice like he was afraid of falling.

The last 30 miles south of Hartline yielded zero birds. It’s what seems like endless miles of agricultural land. No trees. No grassland. No shrubbery. And no birds. Even sitting and watching the trees and equipment surrounding the occasional farmyards for a length of time, didn’t yield any resident raptors. We were hoping for maybe a Kestrel or two. If they were there, they didn’t show.

We did drive close to the abandoned farm that is a couple miles south of Highway 2, looking for the Great Horned Owls that nest there. We know they are there, but since we didn’t actually see them this time, we couldn’t count them.

This wraps it up for the 2021/2022 winter raptor survey season for us. There are still routes available if you are interested in participating next season. For information, contact Jeff Fleischer at raptorrunner97321@yahoo.com

Here is a summary of what was seen:

Red-tailed Hawk 10
American Kestrel 1
Northern Harrier 1
Bald Eagle – Adult 1
Rough-legged Hawk 1
Unidentified Buteo 1
Unidentified Falcon 2