Even Amid the Clouds

We had a nice day at the Hawk Watch today-

13 Broad Wings
  2 Bald Eagles
  1 Northern Harrier

were countable migrants.  We had an additional Bald Eagle, 3 Coopers Hawks, 1 Sharp Shinned, several Red -Tailed, and Red-shouldered and an American Kestrel that were not.  But the day was active all day once it cleared a bit, and before the heavy rains arrived.

Our non-raptor count included quite a few Blue Jays, a nice close view of a Pileated Woodpecker, and no less than 10 Hummers attacking Ken and Sue's feeders at the house near the lookout.  Their deck was teaming with birds dive-bombing one another so fast, that we couldn't actually get a perfect count.  They have 3 feeders close to one another, but hanging on 3 levels, and every hummer was attacking another. I actually never saw even one land on a feeder.  So comical. And they were all there at once.

Some ask how we knew the one Bald Eagle was not the same as one adult we counted earlier. I explain that I can't always know, but sometimes we can.  The first Adult and one Immature, which we counted as migrants early in the day, came from way out and continued for as far as we could see them.  So we watched them carefully. The adult had full white head and tail, and the immature had neither. No brainer..they were different Eagles.  But the 3rd Eagle which was actually flying north, and was therefore uncountable, was also different enough to know.  3rd and 4th year young adults often have a pinkish hue to their white tails.  And a tinge of  a band on the white that looks sort of creamy in color.  Similar to some Red-tail immatures.  This bird had that characteristic, and was definitely different that the other two we had seen earlier.  It pays to watch for even the slightest characteristics sometimes on birds as obvious as Eagles, and others if possible.  For instance, a missing feather, an odd coloration, or a special lightness or darkness that seems obvious.  We actually get to know some of our "locals" this way.  But in this case it helped us not decrease our migration count by 1 eagle.

We are now 13 more BW's closer to our 50,000 goal!  Only need 575 more to reach it. We are on the countdown!!!!!

Keep looking up!


PS  The Florida Keys Hawk Watch reports thousands of Night Hawks, which aren't actually hawks, but kin to the Night Jars - Whip-poor-wills and Chuck-wills-widows.  Commonly known by some as "Bull Bats," which they also are not. Many city buildings put recordings on their roofs to discourage the nesting of Night Hawks on the gravel roofs. Not exactly sure if damage is done if they nest on roofs, but its sad that they can't be tolerated, because, like bats, they consume bugs drawn to the lights of the city.  They do an enormous service to keep the bugs under control. 

I also include this site, because I want to begin introducing other Hawk Watch spots to the blog.  You might visit one some day.Florida Keys Hawk Watch on facebook