The highlights of todays (Sept. 21) monthly survey at Harriett Wieder Park were, without question, all of the hawks and falcons we had today! The first thing I did before the start of the tally was to go over them with the teams and figure who saw how many, when, where, and which direction they were flying to eliminate duplication. Heres what we came up with:
2 Osprey
2 White-tailed Kites (were both seen at once at one point)
2 Northern Harriers (both seen at once)
6 Coopers Hawk (seen all at the same time by the playground, then the crows started harassing them, putting on quite a show)
1 Red-Shouldered Hawk
2 Red-tailed Hawks (seen at the same time)
6 American Kestrels
2 Peregrine Falcons (at the start of the count, they were both sitting in the bare tree in the Bolsa Chica side of Fishers Gulch with 1 WTKI)

In addition, we saw 21 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers today, but no Californias, and 18 FOS White-crowned Sparrows and 2 Western Meadowlarks, 5 American Wigeons (FOS), 14 Snowy Plovers, 76 Red-necked Phalaropes, the continuing California Thrasher, and 1 VESPER SPARROW.
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Terry Hill
Huntington Beach