Hey birders …..
All sorts of raptor mayhem happened this last week; did you catch any of it? Osprey after Osprey were playing follow the leader in a long line way above our heads; Merlins were wizzing by catching dragonflies and terrorizing kestrels; Broad wings were forming kettles of more than a hundred birds and spiraling up into the clouds. But the main story was the new birder and scientist converts. No flat earth here.
I know of at least three kids who will now be getting bins for birthday / Christmas and several others who want to be scientists. It's so fun to see the kids come alive when we involve them in the hawk count. Thank you so much to those of you who lent us bins (we need more!!)…it makes such a difference to expose a new world to these kids and their parents. I have them spotting birds and then entering it into the tablet where they can see their contribution live on the web. Some of the smaller kids were linking hands and flapping their "wings" while running about as Eagles. One little kid just laughed all the time constantly saying "biscuits."
So I've been kept pretty busy counting the raptors while evangelizing birds and conservation, changing my style between the kids and adults; between new birders and experts.
My favorite thing to happen though was catching up with a birding buddy I grew up with in London, UK and who now lives locally in Richmond. It had been way too long and it was fun to chat about old birding adventures when we were teenagers … but that's another story or two.
A special thank you to Andy, a visiting raptor raver from PA. He bought a fake garden great horned owl, I mounted it on a pole and we got our first raptor strike….Who else but an energetic Merlin.
Hey, next Saturday it's the Kiptopeke Challenge. My team is the Eagle Eyes. I was going to call it the Garbled Modwits but I didn't know how silly was acceptable …
Anyway, if you're headed to the Eastern Shore on Saturday, spend some time up on the platform with me and help us spot some birds. You can practice what you learned in last week's Blog. You could also help out CVWO by contributing some cash or electronically via the web site. It's the annual fundraiser … but for us on the hawk platform it's always a FUNraiser.
Tally so far at end of week three: 4,768 total raptors
Osprey 2,050
Bald Eagle 180
Northern Harrier 123
Sharp-shinned Hawk. 19
Coopers Hawk 95
Broad-winged Hawk 688
Red-tailed Hawk 60
American Kestrel 1,100
Merlin 369
Peregrine 70
Mississippi Kite 2
Happy birding,
Steve
