[obol] Christmas Valley Raptor Survey

[Kim Boddie]

Lowell Franks and I spent a great day on the desert yesterday (March 15th) counting raptors and lots of other critters.  We were able to check out a sage-grouse lek on private land early in the morning and found 124 sage-grouse doing their thing.  It didn't slow down much from there.  Besides a rather slow raptor count (see below) we saw 100 pronghorns, 30+ mule deer, 4 coyotes, what I think was a fox (very quick look in the sagebrush).  I tried hooting the great-horned owls in their regular trees at the Xmas Valley Golf Course and I was answered by a strange sound that was kind of like an owl but not quite there. After talking back and forth a couple times, out flew an Eurasian Colored-Dove.  I guess I sound more like a dove than an owl.  We also saw our first TV for the season.  Another highlight was watching an immature Golden Eagle soar for a few minutes low over our heads.  We also saw many more hawks and eagles driving to and from the route.

Raptors counted on the Route.
Red-tailed Hawk                    40
American Kestrel                    4
Northern Harrier                      5
Adult Bald Eagle                     2
Golden Eagle                          2
Rough-legged Hawk             13
Ferruginous Hawk                 20
Unidentified Buteo                  4
Prairie falcon                           1
Cooper's Hawk                       1
Turkey Vulture                         1
                                Total      93
  
Kim Boddie
Bend
 
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