Butte Valley Raptor Rally summary from Nov 22

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The Butte Valley Raptor Rally yesterday had incredible weather! Sunny, no wind, cool temperatures.... And we saw all of the raptors that were advertised. It was an amazing Golden Eagle day.

At Lonesome Dove Ranch, an organic alfalfa ranch, where there is no means to deter critters, leaving plenty of prey for hawks and eagles, there were plenty to see.

Most of the viewing took place in California just south into Oregon. The Township Road stop was in Oregon, just north of the border.

Most of this first list below came from that ranch, stopping and scanning from scopes in the roughly two mile stretch of road near the intersection of East Butte Valley and Shady Dell Roads:

Red-tailed Hawk- 14 (those were the ones closest to the road, conservative count with others further away. By far the most common raptor any time of year)

Golden Eagle- 5, with 4 being immature, with their two white discs at their primaries and white at base of tail in their overall dark plumage. And one adult, being all dark brown and golden crown and nape.

Ferruginous Hawk- 20; 30 years ago this species was quite uncommon, but with the steady increase in alfalfa acreage, their preferred prey item, Townsend's Ground squirrel, they have become more numerous. That prey is primarily in alfalfa fields. So, it is locally common, but outside of that farming practice, the Red-tailed Hawk dominates due to its generalist prey preferences. One of those Ferruginous Hawks was a likely very uncommon Dark Morph color.

Northern Harrier-1

Prairie Falcon - 2

American Kestrel- 2

Rough-legged Hawk- 1

Bald Eagle- 2

At a stationary stop at the far western end of Pickard Road out of Dorris:

Bald Eagle - 3

Ferruginous Hawk - 4

Red-tailed Hawk -5

Rough-legged Hawk - 1

Northern Harrier - 1

Township Road, one mile west of Lower Klamath Lake Road, and scanning across permanent pasture area on north side of the road:

Rough-legged Hawk - 4 (probably one dark morph)

Red-tailed Hawk - 12 (at least; many further out and on the ground)

Ferruginous Hawk - 2

Prairie Falcon - 1

American Kestrel - 2

Northern Harrier - 2

One person reported a Sharp-shinned Hawk crossing the road near Dorris while enroute to another site. Some reported at the end of the day seeing Great Gray Owl either on the way or returning home, and likely along the same road as each other. And one other group took a side trip at the end of the day and saw Short-eared Owls, where they were seen through the winter last year.

So, thank you to the 12 participants who enjoyed this traditional field trip focused on raptors that are gloriously abundant here in the Klamath Basin during the colder months of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving and Good Birding!

These summaries were at three general areas. If one drove around the valley, the totals would be in the several hundreds for raptors. Interestingly, I saw the dark-morph coloring for: Red-tailed, Rough-legged, and Ferruginous Hawks on this day. And, there was a possible Harlan's Hawk at Township Road, but lighting was not the best, and distance was not close to be sure. The Harlans was once thought to be a separate species from Red-tailed Hawk. Now it is considered a subspecies. Still, seeing a possible one is great for "nerd speak" at a stop along the way.

Below is the beautiful Red-tailed Hawk, a dark morph form, an uncommon sight among the more common light and intermediate color forms seen around the Klamath Basin. Photo by the talented Loree Johnson of Dorris, CA, and editor of the Facebook site: Friends of Klamath Basin Birds

 

Attachments include: Red-tailed Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, and Rough-legged Hawk. Can you identify each one without checking the file name? Or, can you tell the reasons why each is identifiable? Good Practice!

See you in the field!

Kevin Spencer

Klamath Falls, Oregon