Raptor counts

Hawking season is over! It is just too miserable to be fun, and of course, for the Harris Hawks, too cold. I quickly grow tired of the ditches. With enough people it can be done, but it takes a pretty good contingent to make it work. We have had a really good year, I think the best of my life. Plenty of water for the ducks, which also showed up in good numbers. Rabbits were plentiful and generous. The hawks performed with skill and zeal. I had plenty of help and good company from Tami and her family both siblings and kids. Its always fun to share the joys of falconry with a willing pupil. Its time to quit, and get prepared for the birds to grow new feathers for next years endeavors. 

Karen and I do Raptor counts in our area for The East Cascades Audubon Society. That is a bit funny  since our basic philosophy is at cross purposes. I guess my basic belief would be classed as a conservation approach. That would be to do every thing that you can to make or preserve more of the critters so that I can kill them later, preferably with a Hawk. Audubon has opposed falconry in the past. They have become either resigned or more enlightened towards the sport recently. Actually the reasons are simple, I like the guy that is running it, and it is about Raptors. Any way, we do the run which covers about 168 miles and goes from our house and ends almost at the Oregon border on Hwy 95 and over a lot of the back roads in between. We run it from November to March, once a month.

I decided to take the camera along just in case I saw anything unusual. The first interesting critter we saw was because of a bird that Karen couldn't identify when we drove by it, so I turned around to get a positive ID. It turned out to be a Kestrel, but there was another predator there as well. Unfortunately I had been using the camera for close up work and didn't have time to check the settings, so the shot is on the Macro setting. Oh well pobody is nerfect.

This predator is fairly common here in the high Desert although it is rarely seen. They are very shy, and I felt lucky that I had gotten even this shot of it.

The light for spotting raptors was good, but lousy for photographs. Altogether we saw 170 different raptors on our trip. Here are some photo's of the various raptors that we saw.

A rarity for us was this Barn Owl sitting in a field with a Vole that it had caught. This should give you some idea of how bad the lighting was. I can't recall ever seeing one hunting in the daylight. We saw it fly out of the field with a Vole so it was not injured.

Then the other bird that we often saw sitting on the ground was the Northern Harrier. They are thicker this year than any time we have witnessed in the past.

Then there was a Ferruginous Hawk. This one was a male, and sitting in an unusual spot for them. They mostly sit on one of the wheel lines or on the ground in the open fields, hunting Voles and Mice. The only raptor that is bigger than these guy's are the Eagles.

Here is one of the male Golden Eagles that are common here in the desert. I perhaps should mention that in raptors the males are smaller than the females.

Then there is the Bald Eagle, and from its size, compared to the pole, would be a female. The Golden Eagle is a year around resident here, while the Bald Eagle generally is only here for the calving season. After birth isn't that hard to catch. While very capable of catching their own food, they would much prefer that it be provided to them with as little effort as possible.

Prairie Falcons are surprisingly numerous here as well. We saw 10 today sitting on poles watching for Voles to show them selves above the snow and ice. This one is a female, and a quite large one at that. If you enlarge this one you will see a Vole in her feet.

Some of the other pole sitters are the Red-tail Hawks. This one is a juvenile, probably a male. He looks cross eyed to me. He is a bit cold and all his feathers are ruffled up. The temps this morning were at zero when we started out.

The bird above is a Rough-legged Hawk. I wasn't able to get a sitting picture of one of them. They also eat Mice and Voles almost exclusively.

This little hawk is one of my favorites, a female juvenile Coopers hawk. This little raptor is a kick in the pants. They hunt small to medium size birds, and they do it by concealment, stealth and speed in cover. They rarely sit where they are plainly visible, preferring the middle of a convenient tree to ambush their dinners.

In certain areas of our routes, game birds are prolific to the extreme. Of course they are that way because the people that own the land will not let anyone hunt them, at least for free. Also there is great cover for them as well as food. They are in and around the creek bottoms. The willows and Cat tails give them great cover and places to nest. Of course the Alfalfa fields are great for feeding this time of the year.

I think we saw two to three hundred Pheasants yesterday. Of course where there are game birds there are Golden Eagles as well. It looks tempting enough to hunt them with Jessie, but if you are not fleet of foot, ( I haven't been for quite some time) you are likely to get an Eagle helping her. Sometimes it is better to resist temptation.

Besides most of them are right in the ranchers yard.

Or right in their feed lot. Notice the California Quail feeding with the Chukar's.

Our route took us five hours to cover. We took the dogs with us. Josie is getting used to the car and jumped in the back seat for the first time yesterday. Betsy was in a constant state of vibrating, panting Ecstasy looking at all the game birds running every where. Josie not having been exposed to the scent and taste of game birds was happy with an occasional pet.