Good Raptor Day
Let me start on a little tangent. I have never been interested in chasing birds more than a few miles distant (there are a few species for which exceptions might be made) because driving to a particular place and seeing a bird found by others gives me very little satisfaction. Birding satisfaction comes from going to a good place, not knowing what I’ll find, enjoying the experience, and if something unexpected shows up, well, that’s lagniappe.
Yesterday at St. Marks turned up no rarities and didn’t produce a whopping species total, but there were plenty of birds – Lighthouse Pool has filled up with ducks (see attached Redhead coming in) – and a couple of encounters that were not of the everyday variety.
Standing adjacent to the fishing pier at East River Pool, I caught movement between me and my truck parked about 15″ away, turned quickly and saw a Merlin rocketing about a foot off the ground, right past me, across ERP [East River Pool]-still fast and at a foot or two elevation, and across the pool to chase Dunlin. BTW, lots of shorebirds, and close, at ERP.
While scanning at the bench on Mounds 1, a couple of young N. Harriers were working the area. We turned and saw one of them hovering over the water and noticed some minor ripples directly below it. A Harrier fishing?, we wondered, having never seen such. After a couple of seconds, the “fish” surfaced in the form of a Green-winged Teal. The Teal, presumably coming up for a gulp of air immediately dove again and the Harrier remained hovering. On the second resurfacing the teal just took off and the young Harrier made a feeble pursuit of a few yards and apparently decided it lacked the speed or predatory equipment to deal with a Teal.
On the walk from the T-dike to the north end of Mounds 3 where the Am Flamingo is hanging out, we watched an adult Peregrine make several spectacular passes through the shorebirds before it drifted north. While near the closure sign at the north end of Mounds 3, watched two adult Bald Eagles grab talons and do about two revolutions. We had another Peregrine sighting on the way back out of this hike, probably the same bird.
We completed our falcon trifecta with a male Am Kestrel perched on a snag south of T-dike and added a Cooper’s Hawk perched in the same area. Nothing spectacular, but a great day.