Subject: Bonney Butte Broadwing Bonanza
Date: Oct 1 13:04:59 1999
From: Dan Victor - dcv at scn.org


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Date: Fri, 01 Oct 1999 10:15:42 -0700
From: Don Baccus <dhogaza at pacifier.com>

On September 29th, a kettle of over 60 broadwinged hawks soared
directly over observation at Bonney Butte, HawkWatch International's
banding and migration count project on Mt. Hood.

Thought folks might be interested to hear this, though I'm
sure they're somewhere in California by now! It kind of
amazes me, though I've been predicting that eventually
a herd of them would show up (the Golden Gate Raptor
observatory counts a bunch every year, so obviously
they're passing over Oregon SOMEWHERE each year).

I was up there running the banding station yesterday, and
while numbers are very low compared to the "let's band
a pick-up load's worth of sharpies today" mania at my
usual haunt (in Nevada's Goshute range), I had a very
nice day. Started off by trapping four adult red-tailed
hawks in the first three hours or so. Later had a
beautiful adult male Coop which had completed its
molt - its plumage was in absolutely pristine condition,
its deep black cap and steel-gray back contrasting with
its blood-red eye. Also banded another adult male
Coop (not nearly as beautiful, the first was one of
the most beautiful specimens of this species I've
ever seen, and I've trapped and/or banded literally
thousands of them), and a couple of sharpies.

A gorgeous black morph adult RT blew through the
banding station once, continuing north. The same
thing had happened the day before, presumably the
same bird curious about the goings-on at the site.
That would be a bird worth a roll of film if it
ever miscalculates and gets itself caught.

The weather was beautiful, as was the site with
mountain ash berries at their blazing orange
best, other foilage starting to turn, balmy
temperatures with just the slightest crisp hint
of fall, and the smell of evergreen enhanced by
the dampness resulting from a very slight dusting
of snow the night before.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR mailto:dhogaza at pacifier.com
Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
http://donb.photo.net.