Apparently, our August 10 hawkwatch day was the last clear day they've had on Hawk Hill. Again, it was pretty well socked in. We passed the time viewing slides as a quiz (I got 4 wrong out of 16), and then we take a short hike on the Miwok and Bobcat trails, where we do catch glimpses of a few raptors (and had some other birds ID'd for us, but y'know, I'm here for the killers), mostly TVs (Turkey Vultures), but at least one Red-Tailed Hawk (note to Europeans - I think these are called "buzzards" over there). Then we watch a video of hawks in flight. I find the video more useful, really than any of the other training materials we've had - it's more like what we really see up on the Hill. All of our study of field marks on dorsal and ventral views of static birds seemed pretty much useless once I was up on the Hill - the hawks don't fly directly above or below us, and do not pose for us to paint them in oils. The veterans up there were identifying species mostly by the way they flew, often more than a mile distant. I did not see a single patagial mark on a red-tail all day - nor even the red tail (which juveniles don't have anyway).

Anyway, the video was pretty good for us to see more of the birds like we'll be seeing them on the Hill.

The standard rule is to wait till 1:00 to see if the fog lifts before sending everyone home. We went down to "the Annex" below the Hill, where we saw one red-tail perched in a tree as if representing all raptors - and precious little else.

At 1:00 our group leader decided to send us home. Hope we don't get too many of these kinds of days.