March 21-Rose
March 22-Wes
March 23-Herb
March 24-Steve
March 25-Laura
March 26-Pam
March 27-Hal
Migration:
March 21-176 Swainson's Hawks; 2 Turkey Vultures
March 22-224 SW's
March 23-19 SW's
March 24-502 SW's; 1 Red-tailed Hawk; 1 Osprey
March 25-292 SW's; 4 TV's
March 26-121 SW's
March 27-471 SW's; 4 TV's; 4 Unidentified Raptors
Discussion:
Another remarkable week with daily reports of large kettles of Swainson's Hawks both in the flower fields (feeding on caterpillars) and migrating. Finally today we might have cleared out some of the hawks that were lingering in the area feeding. We will see if new hawks enter the valley today and this evening. The weather continues to be very hot with temperatures in the 90's and total blue skies. Tomorrow the temperature may crack 100. There has been very little morning wind and it appears that thermal production was minimal. The hawks appear to struggle upwards before using updrafts along the Santa Rosa Mountains. Most of the migration has been along the mountains. Below are some youtubes of a typical caterpillar digging in and an evening kettle.
We cannot predict the outcome of the next few weeks. This evening will tell the tale. I might update this blog if new information surfaces this evening. Oh oh, it's almost 6P and I just got word that over 200 hawks came in!!!
http://youtu.be/S3J6jxb1Xks http://youtu.be/dxIzfe0YDew
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| Juvenile Light Intermediate-HC |
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| Evening at the Watch-HC |
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| Beautiful Turkey Vulture-Gary Hilton |
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