Hola Birders,
Bird's mentioned:
Rough-legged Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Bank Swallow
Today we made history and it was sweet and succulent. You thought it woudn't
happen again, didn't you? But we did. Today we saw our SECOND Rough-legged
Hawk of the year. This feet was only accomplished one other time in
Kiptopeke's illustrious tenure. In the 1999 season Ms. Sue Hopkins saw an
unprecedented 14 Rough-legged Hawks. Between 1995 and 2003 (excluding the '99
RLHA count) only 4 Roughies have been seen. That means Roughies are our least
common semi-annual occurring raptor species. Today's bird was a dark morph
female-type bird that took off from Kiptopeke State Park and made a B-line for
VB.
Another interesting bird today was a young Broadwing with an apparent damaged
right wing. This bird flew past in the morning. Coincidentally, a Broadwing
was seen on Sunday the 14th. I don't know if this is the same individual or
not, anyways it's surprising to see a Broadwing in November.
The flights at Kiptopeke have been very predictable lately. Let me illuminate
you. Yesterday we saw our first bird at 9:28am, today (despite an anomalously
early Bald Eagle) our first bird was seen at 9:18am. The flight has ended by
3pm, I mean totally dead get out the shovel and start dig'n dead. But we did
see an Osprey today. It's ALL about quality, not quantity! Here's today's
break down:
BLVU: 35
TUVU: 57
OSPR: 1
BAEA: 3
NOHA: 7
SSHA: 20
COHA: 2
RSHA: 9
BWHA: 1
RTHA: 7
RLHA: 1 (yeah baby!)
AMKE: 1
PEFA: 1
Total: 145
Please check out www.hawkwatch.org for more detailed count info for Kiptopeke
and your local hawkwatch.
Other Birds:
Today Siskin numbers took a nose dive. They have been plentiful and very
demanding of our feeders. However, a midnight intruder broke our Thistle Seed
Feeder last night. No feeder = no Siskin's. We did have a Barn Swallow
yesterday that looked like a female-type. I almost fell off the platform when
I saw that one! Also On Sunday the 4th four Cave Swallow's were seen. They
have been absent since that date.
Good day and good birding,
-Sam
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