Last hawkwatch was this past Saturday. It was REALLY slow towards the end, but worth the wait when a bald eagle wheeled in from around the headlands to the southwest, soared up through the east quadrant, and finally disappeared to the north near Mount Tamalpais.

Terrie was first to spot it; we happened to be together in the south quadrant. As soon as I got it in my binoculars, I knew it was something different - a HUGE bird with big slow flappings of the wings. At first I thought it might be an Osprey, but by then one of the more expert hawkwatchers came over and yelled "Bald Eagle." Awesome. We couldn't have asked for a better finish.

We also got a good look at another golden eagle.

Today I saw a pair of adult red-shouldered hawks - and ID'd the first one by its head-on cupped-wings profile.

We learned a lot in these nine Saturdays, and we saw all but two of the 19 species (Northern Goshawk and Rough-Legged Hawk). We may yet see those two this winter, though, when we go up by the Oregon state line in Feb.

I am a lot more comfortable with my ID skills; if I get a good enough look at a close-up raptor, I can probably tell you what it is -- or at least what it isn't.

We'll volunteer again next year, definitely.

Haven't posted in a while... hawkwatch has been good. Yesterday, we added a Peregrine Falcon to our list for the year and lifetime. Terrie spotted it first. It looked a lot like a raven, passing right to left on the ocean in front of Land's End. But first I noticed that it wasn't "rowing" like a raven, and then I noticed that it was going quite a bit faster than any raven I've ever seen. Not a real close look, but enough for now. Very cool! Also saw another Golden Eagle, and got a much better look than the previous one.

The past few every-other-saturdays have been very warm, but I think I've dialed in the proper nutritive supplies - mainly bringing three liters of water instead of just one and a half.

In general, I'd say in this season of hawkwatching I've gone from about 95% "unidentified raptor" to about 80-85%, which I think is good and reasonable progress given earlier-mentioned difficulty of IDing miles-away black specks.

This is science, but I get the impression than most on the hill do not worship at the altar of pure logic; i.e., they will call a juvenile red-tail and only (perhaps) later give any specific evidential proof such as fieldmarks. But they're generally right (actually, you could call every bird a juvie red-tail and be right about 60-65% of the time).

Reminds me of the time I was on jury duty a few years ago - you knew the guy was guilty, but there wasn't really incontrovertible evidence, so what is your job as a jurist? I felt we couldn't call "guilty" based on logic and the evidence, but I also was entirely sure with no basis in logic that the guy did do the crime (he gave an addled, rambling, against-his-lawyer's-advice speech and claimed the coat he was wearing didn't belong to him and thus the needle drugs were not his).

Anyway, I am seeing progress in myself and am happy with it - every now and then I see one of those far-off specks and get an impression I can't describe that indicates a particular species... and it comes in closer and I find that I was right! It's still enormously frustrating to say again and again "I think it's a red-tail but I can't swear to it," and it doesn't come in closer so I can't get anything that proves it to me, but that's why we have five- and ten-year experts up there with us.

I love these birds. Even on days with 100+ hawks per hour, 30 or more red-tails, a backlit red-tail overhead is still one of the most beautiful things you can see, and I still just stand there in awe, craning to follow it in the binocs...

We did not see this at hawk watch on Saturday. But I'd sure like to.

The bird was "something huge," he said. "The wing looks a little wider than the Otter's, maybe as long as the Otter plane." The bird flew behind a hill and disappeared. Coupchiak got on the radio and warned people in Togiak to tell their children to stay away.

I haven't yet spotted our own strange raptor, either.

Driving home last night from the city, I saw my first and second owls in the wild (in the Victoria yuppie ghetto of west Petaluma and out on Spring Hill Road near the Coast Guard station). Cool.

Bravely brought my bike down to the Headlands with a vague plan of riding up the Miwok Trail and down the Bobcat Trail.

I have lost all bike-legs I built in April, May, and June. Made it (with many stops) to within about a half-mile of the Vortec, but when I saw a long down-and-up ahead, I just turned around and coasted back to the car (fun!), ready to count this as practice. Wouldn't *really* want to do the whole thing first time out!

Fog was breaking up when I arrived (~1:00). I could see the hawkwatchers up on the Hill, but wasn't gonna leave my bike unprotected.

Lots of birds; definite TVs, red-tails, and accipiters (one was pretty definitely a Cooper's); one possible Broad-Winged (white wings with black "fringe," and a particular shape of wing that's hard to describe. Also a strong bit of white on the head - not sure if that jibes with my diagnostics).

At any rate, no binoculars and no pressure to identify. Sometimes, it's nice to just appreciate things without trying to analyze.

Laguna walk yesterday morning was quite productive - five species (the resident Kites and Red-Shouldered Hawk; also a couple of Red-Tails, a Northern Harrier, and of course many Turkey Vultures). Kestrels conspicuous by their absence. Maybe they saw us first. :-)

I posted some snap shots from the our two September hawk watch days -- 9/7/2002 and 9/21/2002 -- here. You can click on any of the photos to open a larger view.

Yesterday on the hill we got to meet Greg Gothard, who does the buteo.com site. I found Greg's hawk photos on the web years ago, and they inspired me to find out more about GGRO. Explore his site for lots of wonderful wildlife photos.