South Coast Raptors Field Trip Report - Nov. 17, 2024
Osprey
This year’s raptor run was a great full day of birding for the thirteen of us who made the trip south to Point Arena scouting for hawks, falcons, eagles, kites, and whatever else we could find along the way. We had good weather, an enthusiastic group, and some entertaining acrobatics from a few of our star raptors.
Along the way to Elk we spotted a good number of American Kestrels, the first of a total of 33 for the day. In town, the group split up and most of us went out to look out over Greenwood State Beach, where we spied an adult Bald Eagle flying low over the ocean like a Pelican then perching atop a nearby rock. Meanwhile on the other side of the highway, Tim Bray and Roger Adamson found a vagrant Dickcissel, a Great Plains bird in the Cardinal family that winters in Central and South America. Unfortunately the bird disappeared quickly and evaded the rest of us despite a lengthy search. Good views of a beautiful Say’s Phoebe and two cute Lincoln’s Sparrows at this location provided some consolation. (Others re-found the Dickcissel several times over the next few weeks, so it did stick around.) We found only a single Red-tailed Hawk and heard one Red-shouldered Hawk in Elk, the only of the latter species seen or heard all day.
In the vicinity of Elk Creek we started to see better numbers of raptors, including a handful of Red-tails and Kestrels, two more Bald Eagles, and a Ferruginous Hawk in the distance. One of the Eagles was harassed and chased off by a Red-tail, which in turn got harassed and chased off by a Kestrel. Soon after, we spotted a Peregrine Falcon flying towards us from the ocean, and this was shortly joined by a second individual. The pair were soon tumbling, grappling, and cartwheeling until they disappeared over a nearby ridge. There and elsewhere, the raptors did not disappoint with their drama!
The open fields and pastures from there to Point Arena yielded somewhat better numbers of Red-tailed Hawks (coming to a total of 42 for the day) and another very distant Ferruginous Hawk off Stoneboro Road near Manchester State Beach. We also found several Northern Harriers in this area.
We ended the day with sunset at the Point Arena Lighthouse, finding our only White-tailed Kite of the day on a post above the Garcia River. Looking out above the river mouth, we spotted all three regular species of loon, a large flock of Canada and Cackling Geese, a Northern Pintail in with some mixed groups of ducks, and two more Bald Eagles—making a total of 5 for the day. Overall, though, raptor numbers were lower than usual for this trip, raising some concerns about the health of our wintering populations. We also saw a few juvenile and immature raptors. Despite this scarcity, though, we all had a lovely day chasing birds down the coast and watching their aerial feats.
See the full list of species and eBird checklists here: https://ebird.org/tripreport/293475