This message appeared on BirdWest under the heading of South Idaho Bird
Alert for October 4, 1998 but it is really a list of the raptors counted at
Lucky Peak Reservoir, Ada County, Idaho, for September. To my knowledge,
this is the only raptor count currently going on in Idaho.

Deborah K. Beutler
Dept. Zoology
Washington State University
Pullman, Whitman Co., WA

dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: D Gettinger <gettinger at WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
To: BIRDWEST at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU <BIRDWEST at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Date: Sunday, October 04, 1998 9:29 PM
Subject: [BIRDWEST] S Idaho RBA 10/4/98


>The following is a report for the last week of Spetember for the Lucky Peak
Observatory east of Boise.
>
>Count totals from the Idaho Bird Observatory's (IBO) hawk watch on Lucky
>Peak near Boise, Idaho.
>
> 9/24 9/26 9/27
>Hours 8 4 8.5
>
>Sharp-shinned Hawk 42 8 112
>Cooper's Hawk 16 8 116
>Northern Goshawk 0 0 4
>Unidentified Accipiter 0 1 17
>
>Red-tailed Hawk 13 4 44
>Swainson's Hawk 2 2 8
>Broad-winged Hawk 2 0 2
>Unidentified Buteo 0 0 2
>
>American Kestrel 66 1 69
>Merlin 1 0 1
>Unidentified Falcon 0 0 1
>
>Golden Eagle 1 0 1
>
>Northern Harrier 4 0 24
>
>Osprey 1 3 8
>
>Turkey Vulture 138 3 175
>
>Unidentified Raptor 2 0 6
>
>Total 288 30 590
>
>
> 9/29 9/30
>Hours 9 7.5
>
>Sharp-shinned Hawk 91 49
>Cooper's Hawk 37 37
>Unidentified Accipiter 3 8
>
>Red-tailed Hawk 18 21
>Swainson's Hawk 2 4
>Broad-winged Hawk 1 0
>Unidentified Buteo 0 4
>American Kestrel 93 21
>Merlin 1 1
>Northern Harrier 5 7
>
>Osprey 3 0
>
>Turkey Vulture 26 190
>
>Unidentified Raptor 1 7
>
>Total 281 349
>
>Sept. 25 was rained out. There will unfortunately be a delay in
>reporting the Sept. 28 data here because it went home with one of the
>counters and is still unavailable at this time. I think the total
>number of raptors counted was somewhere near 470 that day, although I
>wasn't counting that day. I'll report the Sept. 28 data on my next
>"office day," Monday, Oct. 5.
>
>Fall '98 continues to be an incredible season for the Idaho Bird
>Observatory. Several species counts have already broken Lucky Peak
>records from the past four years. The small front that moved through on
>Sept. 25-26 brought near-record single day numbers of raptors (590
>total) on the 27th. By the 29th we lost all cloud cover, and the
>temperature warmed up to the 70s. Birds were flying higher and harder
>to spot. Another front appears to be coming through soon, and clouds
>are sitting over the peak today. We have still seen only one
>Red-shouldered Hawk (on Sept. 23) for the season and are all hoping for
>a second.
>
>Also, on the 28th, we saw four vagrant Blue Jays flying around the peak,
>one of which was caught in one of our songbird banding nets and banded.
>Blue Jays are regular visitors to Lucky Peak and have been seen every
>fall since 1995, but this was the first one we ever caught.
>
>And our web site is up and going now:
>
>http://www.idbsu.edu/biology/ibo/
>
>I welcome and would value any comments about the site.
>
>
>IBO's 1998 Raptor Migration Observers: Ryan Andrus, Craig Fosdick,
>Nicole Michel, Peter Whitlock.
>
>Hawk Watch Volunteer Spotters include: Jay Carlisle, Ron Haberman, Sarah
>Hamilton, Dusty Perkins, Drew Wheelan, David Wike, Shaye Wolf, and
>several others.
>
>IBO is a charitable, non-profit organization operating in cooperation
>with Idaho Fish & Game, Boise State University, the U.S. Bureau of Land
>Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the Idaho Fish and Wildlife
>Foundation, and the U.S. Geological Survey Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem
>Science Center's Snake River Field Station.
>