Birders get excited about seeing rare species, especially those that are keeping lists of birds seen in a certain state. For example, a blue-footed booby would be a big deal for birders listing California birds - this bird is rarely seen in California. So, when the hawkwatchers heard that a booby had been spotted at Land's End (the tip of San Francisco, easily seen from Hawk Hill) at 10:00 AM this morning, they started to get excited at the prospect of it potentially flying right past us. Thus, the south quadrant was given the extra task of "booby watch" today. (I giggled when given that assignment. Apparently, I refuse to grow up). Sadly, we never saw the bird.
Here's the HW report for the day:
Today was slow at the start, slow at the finish, with a flurry of raptor activity in the middle. The day was sunny and the wind direction was "all," seeming to change every three minutes or so. We were hopeful to get a look at the vagrant Blue-footed Booby, spotted just across the bay at 10AM today (thank you, eBird!) However, the raptors certainly kept our attention today. We got a good look at a juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk, followed by an even better look at its adult counterpart, a great lesson in distinguishing the two. Towards the end of the day, a distant dot was identified as a Ferruginous Hawk of unknown age. As for our usual suspects, the Turkey Vulutures beat out the Red-tailed Hawks by one bird today, 94-95.
An adult red-shouldered hawk (above) being ambushed by a juvenile Cooper's hawk (below).
The quintessential GGRO raptor: a juvenile red-tailed hawk.
Hours Counted: 5.5
HPH: 45.64
Total Species: 9
Species Counts:
Turkey Vulture: 95
Osprey: 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 13
Cooper's Hawk: 26
Red-shouldered Hawk: 4
Red-tailed Hawk: 94
Ferruginous Hawk: 1
American Kestrel: 5
Peregrine Falcon: 2
Unidentified...
Accipiter: 6
Buteo: 1
Falcon: 1
Raptor: 1
No comments:
Post a Comment