Observation start time: 08:30:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.5 hours
Official Counter: Jim Thomson
Observers: Phil Rodriguez, Ted Lurker, Tom Campbell
Visitors: Marc Chelemer, Cliff Miller- Good seeing you guys and thanks much for the spotting help !! What a day !! Rick Klinger- Good seeing you Dave Zawalich- Welcome back to Coon Dave !
Weather: Temps- 43-58 Deg.F, WIND- AM N/NW@5-10mph, PM- NW@1-6mph Clear Blue Skies
Raptor Observations: BE- 2(I0 GE- 12:12A, 12;12i, 1:35i AG- 10:25I RL- 12:08 Dark Morph Some crazy great Halloween treats on Coon today !! A very slow migration day was punctuated by moments of incredible excitement!! Our morning started with a local peregrine cruising up and down the ridge on the river side giving us some stunning looks as it would move slowly along the ridge, kiting at times before moving along. The next few hours only produced a couple of Sharpies and a Harrier. Our Bird of the Day arrived at 10:25am. We first picked up this bird circling a longs ways off up ridge.We were thinking likely a Redtail but needed it to come down ridge and close the distance a bit before we could ID it. As it moved towards us it was looking longer winged and than it turned and we yelled Goshawk !! This big "dirty" bird came in slowly and right along the ridge on the reservoir side.filling our bins with a big, beautiful Goshawk . Very dirty on the underside including the streaked undertail coverts. As it slowly passed us it pulled up and circled directly behind the watch site. We got to study this bird for approx 2 minutes before it finally moved off down ridge. Things continued to be slow and we picked up a few more raptors before our next "treat" arrived. We picked up a closer bird on the river side, as it started to circle we were shocked to be looking at a gorgeous Dark Morph Roughleg !!! This bird must have been moving below eye level as we never saw it coming in until it popped up in front of us !!! Incredible !!!! We were joking around that now we needed a Golden Eagle and literally 4 minutes later we had an adult Golden streaming over our heads followed closedyby an immature Golden !!!! The two birds started dogfighting out over the river putting on a real show for us !!! It was simply awesome !!!! Our third Golden passed by the watch site high at 1:25 pm moving straight on thru. A truly incredible day that will not soon be forgotten !!
Non-raptor Observations: Pine Siskins - 100+ Robins- 1 flock of 150+ Purple Finches American Goldfinch E. Bluebirds Hermit Thrush Cedar Waxwings Ravens TV's ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jim Thomson (<hawkinflight...>)
