Today, 1-6-21, my mom and I went out to Coyote Valley for a quick outing after school.
We arrived at Palm Ave. at 3:15 pm, and there was a large blackbird flock near the OSP parking lot. We were able to identify about 300 *Brewer's Blackbirds*, 50* Red-winged Blackbirds*, 3 *Tricolored Blackbirds*, and one female *Brown-headed Cowbird*. We then checked the Ferruginous Hawk spot at 3:30 and did not see it at that time, so we decided to check again later. A *Merlin* was perched on an oak across the street from the sod farm.
We then birded Laguna Ave. west of Santa Teresa. My mom quickly spotted the *Prarie Falcon* sitting on a fence post north of the road. We've looked about a dozen times for it both at Laguna and Rancho San Vicente over the past few months and haven't found it, so we were so excited to finally see it! It then flew over the road and disappeared to the south. There were also 3 *Northern Harriers* sitting in the field, a *Loggerhead Shrike* on the fence, 2 *American Kestrels*, and a *White-tailed Kite* in the distance.
On our way out, we checked the Ferruginous Hawk spot again. At 4:25 pm we got to see a beautiful *Ferruginous Hawk *sitting on top of the oak tree above the sod farm office!
Overall it was a very nice outing with 7 raptor species in just over an hour, and a good escape from zoom calls and the recent headlines.
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