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| The opposite of a hawk watch | this count is one where the hawk watchers are on the move and hawks -- more or less -- aren't. These "winter counts" are now conducted around Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and Groundhog Day in two locations with similar open, flat terrain and of approx. the same square miles [80].
Seventy-seven Rouglegs! And over 150 raptors for the two days in Northern New York and the Champlain Valley of Vermont made this round of surveys very enjoyable even though our NY count was cut way short by lake effect snow squalls out ahead of an Alberta clipper that raced through the area... ahead of schedule. I understand there's been some chat about the high number of dark morph Roughlegs as of late. The percentages of dark morph RLs were: NY[21%] and VT[42%]. Now, Sibley's Guide states the percent of dark morphs in Roughleg populations are: east [40%] and west [10%]. While I think Dave Sibley walks on water, the eastern number [40%] is out of date and probably never accurate... just one of those factoids published once and carried over... and over and over. Upcoming Brian Wheeler books will present data based on hundreds of eastern observations putting the dark morph percent under 25%. [Above is an image from the Champlain Valley of Vermont looking west into the Adirondack Mts.]
Count area -- West of Watertown on Pt. Peninsula and nearby. Well, we had HALF-DAY of good weather and hawks before the wind shifted and the snow squalls started. Even after the snow had passed, the hawks had gone under for the rest of the day... another twenty raptors, probably. BE 1 [adult] Hawk Food Sampler: Horned Larks [156], Wild Turkeys [43], Snow Buntings [11], Lapland Longspurs [8], Gray Partidge [3]. Champlain Valley VT [12/27/00] Count area -- Towns of Bridport, Addison and Panton, mostly. Just a little breezy, but no foul weather to effect the counting. There was a couple of inches of snow on the ground with evidence of recent high winds. South of the count area, we had another 9 Redtails and a light Roughleg [not included below]. NH 0 Hawk Food Sampler: Snow Buntings [63], Wild Turkeys [14], Northern Flicker [1]. [Right: Typical immature winter Redtail photographed in Vermont and then etched in Photoshop.] * Redtail field notes also include info on eastern RT plumage variations. ** Roughleg field notes also include info on age classes. |
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Northern NY [12/24/00]