[obol] Refuge raptor stories

[Conservation For The Oregon Coast]

Hello Molly!

Regarding the SHARP-SHINNED HAWK; my wife and I have spent a couple 
hours on a few separate occasions watching SSHA hunting on the ground, 
trying to flush out something that he/she hears. It has been quite 
comical at times to watch the raptor dive in repeatedly on one side 
while a JUNCO or WHIT-CROWNED SPARROW flits away from the other side of 
the bush. Once we watched a SPOTTED TOWHEE make sport out of the affair, 
twisting and tangling the hawk through multiple bushes (over 10 minutes) 
before flying off...

Jason in Lakeside

Molly Monroe wrote:
> Working with geese on the Willamette Valley refuges allows me some 
> good looks at so many other things out there with the geese, here are 
> some good ones from the last couple of weeks:
>
> ~When geese get spooked and either all look up or get up to fly, I 
> quickly look up from my scope to see what has caught their attention, 
> this time it was a PEREGRINE FALCON clutching a freshly caught duck 
> and in hot pursuit was an adult BALD EAGLE gaining quickly as they 
> flew across the field. From another direction a juvenile Bald decides 
> to help with an ambush and as they both near the falcon, he drops the 
> duck and what looked to be a teal flies away! No meal for any of them....
>
> ~A SHARP SHINNED HAWK caught my attention at Eagle Marsh (Ankeny NWR) 
> as it was hopping around on a dike. I'd never seen one spend much time 
> on the ground before so I watched it through the scope. "He" would run 
> from the middle of the road to the edge of the dike into some grass 
> looking around like he was expecting something to come flying out at 
> him, but I never saw him eat anything or even try for bugs so I'm not 
> sure what he was doing but he spent several minutes RUNNING from one 
> spot to the next. He finally moved on down the road and hopped onto a 
> larger dead bird which turned out to be a coot, picked at it a bit and 
> tried to move it, then was hazed off by a red tail. Do they often 
> scavange like that? New one for me!
>
> ~Another new one for me was also at Ankeny today, I watched a RED 
> TAILED HAWK running around on the ground, this time eating worms! 
> Sucked them up like spaghetti. Very comical but the most interesting 
> part was that he would hop around for a few minutes in one spot, eat a 
> dozen or so worms, then fly closer to the geese (making them fly 
> around and land again), land and start running around after worms 
> again. I almost wondered if somehow the geese had something to do with 
> the earthworms being more active and visible as he was following them 
> around the grass field.
>
> ~Also today, got great looks at a merlin, another sharpie, several 
> bald eagles and the best look at an adult RED SHOULDERED HAWK! He was 
> in a tree just across the road from Eagle Marsh, (sounds like he's 
> been hanging out in this area lately) but this was up in a sparse tree 
> instead of buried in the shrub line. Fluffed all up and let me walk 
> under him for some great pics! The sun was really trying to come out 
> and it made for a lovely afternoon. And of course, I saw several 
> thousand geese and read lots of collars in between all this activity! 
> Oh yeah, the dunlin are doing their thing too, very cool day.
> ~At Baskett I saw the WHITE TAILED KITE on the north end and on the 
> south end, two ROUGH LEGGED HAWKS and a super dark Harlan's RED TAIL 
> taking turns on a meal in a field. We may have some gloomy winters 
> here in the valley but the birds sure make up for that and keep it 
> interesting~
> Molly Monroe
> Corvallis, OR
>
> _
> ( '<
> / ) ) ~Be the change you wish to see for the world~
> //" "
>
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