Yesterday presented near perfect winter conditions for raptor hunting at The Wilds. It was a clear, cold 9 degrees, visibility at 10 miles, sunny, snow-covered, with no wind. We set up at Jeffrey's Point and waited. Ponds were frozen. Nothing but an American Crow moved until 10:00, when we began seeing distant black specks over tree lines. Out of nowhere, two Golden Eagles came up over a ridge and landed in the snow, close enough to easily see the eagle profile and preliminary detail with bins. We got a scope on one immediately and noted the lovely brown color, the glowing gold nape, and the creamy mottling on the upper wings. It was uniformly dark when it flew, so we were comfortable calling it an adult. The other bird, in flight, showed some white on the upper tail. We managed very blurry photos. It was a probable subadult, based upon two of us simultaneously noting the white. Note: We were EXTREMELY fortunate to have seen them so close. After another hour, there was no sign of them emerging from the tree line into which they had flown. Knowing where they had flown, Jacob, Emily, and Greg were able to relocate them in the trees from Zion Ridge Rd. Theirs was a more typical distant look, but the sun was perfect for illuminating the neck and making a positive ID. 

Other raptors were active as well. A Rough-legged Hawk flew directly over the eagles, obviously a much smaller bird, and landed on the platform in the pond. Then a nice male harrier flew across, gorgeous in the light. We then drove the roads for two hours, tallying 4 Red-tailed Hawks, a very active pair of American Kestrels, and three additional point blank Rough-legged Hawks including a lovely dark phase 1st year bird. Numbers were not staggering, but we had very quality viewing of stunning birds.
Passerines were in little pockets but mostly tucked in.
Leslie, Karen and Carl

Sent from my iPad
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