HawkWatch in Borrego Springs

Borrego Valley HawkWatch

Wade, Keeva and I arrived in Borrego on March 18th at about 2pm and will be camping here with our trailer until March 31st! One of the main reasons we are here is so that I can participate in the HawkWatch For more information, click on the link above. Swainson's hawks migrate through the Borrego Valley in large numbers from February until April. As many as 1000+ hawks have been reported in one day. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the HawkWatch, there are a group of folks who count and keep records of the hawk's migration. They have a Morning Site and an Evening Site. So lucky me, I will get to participate in about 5 hrs. of birding every day!

This morning I drove up in to Coyote Canyon with one of the HawkWatch leaders and saw 31 hawks "streaming" through the canyon, headed north. Very exciting. Also during the day I saw a Black-throated Sparrow, Audubon's Warbler, Roadrunner, Lawrence's Goldfinch, Verdin, Redtail Hawk, Kestrel and Quail.

There really are 3 hawks in this photo

Coyote Canyon

Near Lake Henshaw

At the Evening Site tonight while waiting for the birds to come in, I put my binoculars up to check out a little black spot and was thrilled to see a "glassfull" of  50-75 hawks! Needless to say it was fun to alert the group and be the one who earns the "hot fudge sundae". We watched as the birds dropped down in to the Ellis Tree Farm area, pretty much out of sight. About 15 minutes later, in groups of 5 or 10, most of them flew back in our direction, directly overhead and roosted in a group of trees nearby. The Swainson's were silhouetted against a colorful sunset - a beautiful and inspiring sight. I'm including a picture of this, even though the birds are just black specks!

 A wonderful first day with lots to follow! We are having a great time!

ps.Please excuse the type and photo placement inconsistencies; I'm still learning how to use Blogger s.

Road Runner