Soaring High
I felt like I just wrote a journal post (which was yesterday) but it's Wednesday again so another week has passed for the IPNRM. We ended August and started September, what happened during this time? We've added 60 more observations and our total count is 312 with Red-tailed Hawks taking up 20% of those sightings. A new species was added, a Broad-winged Hawk spotted in the Wallowa Mountains. All great stuff.
The observation of the week goes to @craigjhowe for his excellent photo session of a hatch year Golden Eagle. Often birders ask how to distinguish Bald Eagles from Golden and the answer is quite simple in Craig's photos. What do you see? I see feathered legs, a diagnostic feature of Golden. Bald Eagles will have bright yellow tarsi that are not feathered. An easy way to identify if I do say. You can see the observation here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58276105
What should we expect in next week's episode? September is starting which is probably the hype month for raptor migration. Stay in the mountains and scan the skies, you may grab more Broad-winged Hawks. It wouldn't hurt to get some goshawks along the way. We are certainly lacking in owl photos so if anyone has any interest, go owling on a nice clear night. I hope to see another boom in observations so keep it up hawkwatchers!
Kommentit
Lisää kommentti