North Benton raptors including Red-tailed Hawks on/by nests

[Joel Geier]

Gawain and I ran a raptor survey in north Benton County today, after waiting until 10:55 AM for the fog to mostly clear. This route zigzags around in the area from Lewisburg north to the Polk County line, west of Palestine and east of Camp Najaf (National Guard Rifle Range), covering a total of about 50 miles of road.

We found very good numbers of raptors for this route, including:

57 Red-tailed Hawks

3 Rough-legged Hawks (including a dark morph over OSU's Hyslop Farm)

3 Cooper's Hawks (2 adults and 1 imm bird perched in various spots)

1 Sharp-shinned Hawk (adult perched at Hyslop Farm)

9 Bald Eagles (5 adult, 4 subadult)

38 American Kestrels

Two pairs of Red-tailed Hawks were perched together in trees with nests, with one bird standing on the nest.

The Ignominious Raptor Retreat Award for the day goes to a male Kestrel who started to fly from a utility wire along Robison Road, just as about a dozen Western Meadowlarks flushed from roadside and wound up right on his tail for about 50 yards. Luckily for his self-esteem, no other kestrels were around to watch his flight.

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Joel Geier

Tampico area north of Corvallis