Raptorwatching July

The second week has passed for the project so I'll go over what happened over the week and announce the observation I enjoyed the most. Well, one slow week turns into two and this project officially only has 28 observations. I have come up with two theories that might explain the lack of raptors being spotted. One, raptors might be getting harder to find because it's the breeding season. I suspect that once August comes around, we'll see a spike in numbers. Theory number two is, July has been proven to be the least birding month by citizen science and nobody is going out to see birds. So I suggest if you happen to read this post, go out birding more often in July.

I will mention with pride though, three new species have been spotted during the week. These three species are the Cooper's Hawk, Barred Owl and Flammulated Owl. And I believe that's the cue for mentioning the observation of the week for the project. Five days ago, @stephstrag photographed a female Flammulated Owl that was sitting on two eggs. There's several reasons why I chose this as the observation for the week. One, these are put-in-the-field-guide-now kind of photos. Two, last year's project failed to obtain any observations of a Flammulated Owl so I think some recognition of a hard to find species is in order. You can find the observation here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/52620530

I now feel like talking about the Flammulated Owl. Though it's an incredibly hard species to find, it is believed to be much more common than most think. They prefer to breed in open pine forests, especially ponderosa forests, in dry areas. That makes pretty much all of eastern Oregon more than ideal habitat this species. I've heard Flammulated Owls only a hand full of times but I can't say they do justice for actually seeing them. My method of finding them, go at night in suitable habitat and listen. I generally do these owling trips between midnight and sunrise, so you mortal people might encounter seem issues. :) So long and good birding!

Posted on July 15, 2020 08:21 PM by birdwhisperer birdwhisperer

Comments

Oh wow, that is such a high compliment, thank you!! Happy to have gotten a missing species for you and the project!

Posted by stephstrag over 3 years ago

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