[ValleyNature] eagle watch III report + rough-legged hawk

[James W. Wolford]

FEB. 7, 2009 (Sat.) - 18th ANNUAL EAGLE WATCH, WEEKEND III --  
Beautiful eagle-watching weather today, with Sunny sky, light winds  
(from west), lots of pristine-looking clean white deep snow  
everywhere,  -5 C. then warmed to -2 and then +2 C. as day  
progressed.  Richard Hennigar was on CBC-TV News with Jim Nunn  
yesterday (and Thurs.?), and perhaps this was the stimulus for HORDES  
OF EAGLE-GAWKERS both at the Middle-Dyke-Road feeding site (north  
end) and at the Sheffield Mills Community Hall when I arrived in late  
morning.  At 10:30 a.m. there were 65+ BALD EAGLES, mostly perched in  
trees and doing not much, at the feeding site -- and at 3 p.m. there  
had been a 2nd or 3rd provision of dead chickens, and still 40+  
eagles were perched communally in the trees on the field edge --  
twice I saw a single immature eagle on the ground quite close to the  
viewers and photographers along the roadside.  Also a few RED-TAILED  
HAWKS were present and seen flying frequently there.

This year's Eagle Watch has gone so well that: (a) last Sunday they  
ran out of the blueberry sauce for the pancakes! (rats!); and (b)  
today the Kingsport community chowder/soup luncheon (which was  
supposed to run to 5 p.m.) was out of chowder at 1 p.m.!! (rats again!).

In the Canard River Valley, along Middle Dyke Road, I saw a single  
intermediate-phase ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK in a small tree on the open  
dykelands.  (The single rough-leg, light phase, seen last weekend  
during our raptors count by James Hirtle was on the dykeland north of  
Greenwich toward Port Williams, but I have yet to see one there.)

Cheers from Jim in Wolfville

Jim (James W.) Wolford
91 Wickwire Ave.
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
B4P 1W3

phone 902-542-9204
e-mail <jimwolford at eastlink.ca>

"In wildness is the preservation of the world" -- Henry David Thoreau
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