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Recent West county sightings MARIN/SONOMA Calif. (1 Viewer)

W.coast Raptor

North Coast Raptor
Recent West county HAWK sightings MARIN/SONOMA Calif.

This whole list is for the west Marin/Sonoma areas.

>10_19_04 12noon to 2:30pm (west Marin/Sonoma county line, two rock/tomales/valley ford area)

Conditions bright, some clear views and some cloudy times and very windy. It had rained for the last couple days pretty hard. So this was a good day because the raptors all needed to get out a grab a bite to eat after the storms past through.

1 Juvenile Northern Harrier. Bloomfield rd.

3 Adult RTH's on Carmody rd. across from pond stilling on wind. RTH is redtailed hawk

1 dark Merlin on Carmondy rd. utility line, looks like it just took a bath, all ruffled up and preening. With cars coming I had to be safe, looped around parked at a distance truck drove by scared the Merlin off. I drove by only to see it settle a third time, and watched it again as more traffic came I thought it best to leave the bird alone.

3 kestrels and 2 adult Red shouldered hawks on Fallon Two rock rd.

At the sweet-spot @ Whitacker bluff/middle rd junction…………..
12 RTH's soaring on the main ridge.
Along with ravens and crows and a cormorant sneaks through.

3 juvenile Ferruginous and 1 adult. 2 hunting right above me, I stand looking up and this bird is so close I could hear the swoosh of the wind moving over its long wings and through its feathers, now mind you, it flew towards me, I had parked and was looking around and the Ferruginous closed in on me from 100 yards to about 20. Very close to me and As I watched this juvie ferrug, I was trying to get a count on the other Ferruginous hawks in the area, another juvenile right near me, both of them kitting/stilling on the wind. Then yet another juvenile Ferruginous behind me hovering kite like, then a forth Ferruginous, this one was an adult, high above almost looking over all three juvs. It was very interesting. So I was realizing it was going to be a great day. After spending a good 20 minutes with the Ferruginous hawks, (seeing them make four attempts on prey and one time one got a something, yippee good juvie) I decided to get moving to see what else there was to see.

Driving away from the Ferruginous hovering above me, I didn’t make it more then 3 yards, when out of the corner of my eye and at a high rate of speed, two streaking birds thrust themselves toward me. I needed to stop the car to avoid them. Turns out a juvenile Peregrine Falcon with crow in chase was screaming out of the sky onto a meadowlark. The meadow lark was going from a few feet off the ground to a fence line and the Peregrine, had a bead on it. I don’t know if the meadowlark was using my car as an obstacle, but I stopped cuz it looked like the peregrine was going to eat my grill. So right in front of my car hood, about five feet in front of the car, the meadow lark scibbies across the road and the Peregrine flies in about 3 feet off the ground. With a thug the meadow lark hits the dense grass and fence line, (3 foot livestock grade fencing) the crow pulls away and the Peregrine pulls up at the last minute, clearing the fence wire by about a foot. Scary, that would have been terrible if it’d hit the fence as they to often do, amongst other things. (utility wires, cars, transmission towers and support wires {wind turbines?}.) So any how the juvie Peregrine shot up from the ground in amazing dash toward the sky, only to reach about 75 feet and come slashing back down onto some brewers and redwing black birds and again the crow was trying to mob the juvie Peregrine. The Peregrine missed its attempt on the BBBs and RWBBs and all the birds in the area took off like it was WWIII. That whole Peregrine thing happened in less then a minute, bam it was there, it was gone. The Peregrine shot off to the next series of hills, I took one last glace at the Ferruginous only seeing 3 of them now and move toward the next set of hills and wouldn’t you know it, the Peregrine came over the ridge, still feverishly trying to catch a meal, many a sparrow, blackbird and meadow lark all dashed into the grass lined fence rows. And the peregrine coursed the mountain side almost like a harrier. I studied it for another minute and drove off, what a rush.

Near Estero rd., a Sharpshinned Hawk dashed from a roadside tree down to the creek and a adult red-tailed hawk gave chase but the sharp was gone in seconds and the RTH had no chance from the start, very funny to watch.

1 Juvenile Coopers hawk at the marsh, got a safe distance away and watched the drama unfold, turns out the utility pole that it was sitting on, was right above some black berry brambles witch was full of finches sparrows and quail, I am pretty sure the coop was after the quail. I watched this coop try to get dinner for 10 minutes it was very comical, the coop jumping up and down and in and out of the dense brambles. In the end an adult red shoulder hawk few over the coop and the coopers hawk took off. It never did get its dinner, it looked very skinny. Hopefully it had better luck at its next attempt.

Finishing off the day with………

1 White tailed kite sits on a fence post. Going down the Marsh rd.
4 RTH’s on the ridge in the distance that over looks the marsh/marsh rd..
2 of the same ferruginous hawks upon going back to the Whitaker bluff/middle junction and a dozen RTH’s ride the bluff
1 Cooper’s hawk makes a dash above the road, Going out Roblar rd.

Summary….of 10-19-04 continued.

1 N. Harrier
20 RTH
1 Merlin
3 KES ( I think I saw a lot more, but with the ferrug/peregrine/merlin/accip stuff I failed to count kes’s this day)
3 RSH
4 Ferruginous
1 Peregrine
1 sharpshinned
2 coopers
1 WTK

>10_20_04. _ West counties loop (Marin/Sonoma county line, two rock/tomales/valley ford area)

1 juvenile Peregrine Falcon, from Comstock fields, caught a couple thermasl above Guerneville road between Dutton rd and Marlow rd.
1 Merlin chasing BB near fallon
2 Northern harriers
14 Kestrels
3 White tailed kites
4 Red-shouldered hawks
Over 40 Red-tailed hawks, a couple dark, about half adult and half juvie.

>10_21_04. _ West counties loop, during turtle release for Wildcare wildlife rehab. (Found a nice home for and native turtle)

50+ Red-tailed hawks
20+ Kestrels
1 Northern harrier
3 Red-shouldered hawks
2 White tailed kites

>10_23_04. _ West counties loop (Marin/Sonoma county line, two rock/tomales/valley ford area) and bodega head.

2 Coopers hawk
8 White tailed kites
10 Red-shouldered hawk 8 adult, 2 juvie.
2 Merlin, one dark one prairie
4 Northern Harriers, 1-adult male, 1- juvie female, 1-juvie male, 1-adult female, that worked out well !!!
36 American kestrel
86 Red-tailed hawk. a few dark and a few intermediate, mostly all western, some Fuertes and about half juvie and the other half adult.
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Barn Owl
Also
Palm warbler
Orange crown warbler
Yellow rumped warbler
Marbled godwit
Pie billed grebe
Eared grebe
Western blue birds
Says phoebe
Black phoebe
Snowy egrets
Great egrets
Song, white crowned and gold crowned sparrows.
Finches, gold and house.
Spotted sandpiper
Greater yellow legs
Cormorants
Pelicans
Great blue herons.
And a magnificent close view on a common loon and a few more in the distance.
Many other birds but those were the ones that got positive ID.


(helper)
WTK = white tailed kite
RSH = Red Shouldered hawk
RTH = Redtailed hawk
KES + American kestrel


>10_31_04 west counties. Marin/Sonoma boarder near valley ford area.

1 Peregrine at tree at Middle road.
100+ RTH
40+ American kestrels
1 Coopers hawk Marsh/Middle road
6 RSH
2 WTK

>11_7_04 west counties valley ford area.

2 Golden Eagle (adults) Petaluma Valley Rord rd.
2 Coopers hawks. Estero rd.
2 N. harriers.
1 Ferruginous hawk. Estero rd.
1 RSH
22 KES
3 WTK
58 RTH
1 sharpshinned hawk Valley Ford/Freestone Rd.


>11_13_04 West counties Valley Ford area.

1 Peregrine Falcon adult. Bloomfield rd, euc snag.
1 Golden Eagle. Middle rd.
30 + RTH
20+ kes
2 RSH
2 WTK
1 Northern harrier

>11_21_04 West counties Valley Ford area.

40+ KES
1 Coopers Hawk. Estero rd
5 Northern Harrier
4 WTK
80+ RTH ( also kettles of 18, 16,16,12 and 8)
4 RSH
1 Prairie Falcon Middle/marsh rd at peregrine tree.


>11_26_04 West counties, Valley Ford area.

1 Golden Eagle juv. Middle rd. on carcass with TVs and Ravens
1 Merlin Gerickie rd.
1 Coopers Hawk Middle rd.
1 Ferruginous hawk Gerickie rd.
1 Peregrie falcon adult. at Middle rd.
2 Northern Harriers
20+ KES
40+ RTH
3 WTK
5 RSH
 
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