I decided to take Friday off of work and go bird watching with Ken at Zion Road near Wheatley. We were hoping to see large numbers of migrating raptors and we had a decent selection of species including a couple of surprises. Our best birds of the day were a Golden Eagle, Rough-legged Hawk and a big surprise of a super late Broad-winged Hawk! Unfortunately most of the hawks were really high, and the largely blue sky made it difficult to spot them.
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| The lookout from the end of Zion Road |
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| Red-shouldered Hawk |
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| A small "kettle" of Turkey Vultures |
I also made a quick stop at Blenheim Sewage Lagoons to see the continuing Cattle Egrets, which seem to be showing up everywhere this fall!
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| Cattle Egret pair - minus the cattle |
Cattle Egret are not a native species in North America, but actually spread to the Americas by flying over from Africa! A neat example of colonization without human facilitation apparently. Below is a map I pulled off wikipedia showing the spread of this interesting little egret species.
Sounds like a great hawk watch spot! I drove by the road yesterday, but a SW wind was not conducive to a hawk watch.
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