In anticipation of participating in the DEC raptor survey this season again, Mary Jean, Phil and I scouted a couple of locations for raptors yesterday afternoon. We spent a bit of time at Neal Rd (Lodi) and didn't see anything. It was early in the afternoon and still too bright when we arrived to expect to see short ears. But we didn't even see a northern harrier.
We then drove to Dean Rd, also Lodi. We arrived about 4:25 and immediately saw two Harriers, a female and a male. They were mainly flying over the fields on the south side of the road. Soon we saw a second male. The numbers gradually increased and then there were 7 harassing a large bird in a tree at the south edge of the field to the south of the road. And they were vocalizing. Without a scope we couldn't confirm what bird they were harassing, but we think it was a great horned owl. We did not see any short eared owls. None of us had seen that many harriers at once before. Best, Marty =========================================== Marty Schlabach m...@cornell.edu 8407 Powell Rd. home 607-532-3467 Interlaken, NY 14847 cell 315-521-4315 =========================================== -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --