This morning Dave Ferry and I conducted a Winter Raptor Survey in the northern part of Lycoming county. We focused our efforts on Cogan House and Jackson Townships, areas with large tracts of open farmland. The morning started out pretty slow but at 7 degrees what could we expect? Most of the survey went slowly with only 2 Red-tailed Hawks in the first 1.5 hours. As the temperature rose to 14 degrees things started to heat up. We found three light morph Rough-legged Hawks in only ten miles. Here is a photo of one of the more cooperative birds.
Rough-legged Hawk (light morph)
Soon thereafter we found a house loaded with bird feeders off of Covered Bridge Road in Jackson Township. Among the 12 American Goldfinches we found 3 Pine Siskins, my first of the year. As we finished our route we only came up with a few more Red-tailed Hawks and no field bird flocks to speak of. I did get two new year birds, Pine Siskin and Horned Lark. This was one of the slowest WRS I have ever done, as far as raptors and field birds. Hopefully the next one will be more productive!
Rough-legged Hawk in northern Lycoming County
Advertisement