Monday, April 5

Raptor's



(Ok, I've been trying to put in a new post for better than a week now and the updated editor version I had been using just didn't work. So, now I've gone back to the old version and voila, I'm able to post again! Hip Hip Hurray! Onto my post that should have come up March 29th, I will post it as I wrote it then and not correct all the day's and such.)

Consider the title. When you read or hear that word, honestly, what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me it is birds. Eagles, Falcons, Buzzard's and Hawks of all description, to be more precise :)

Today the world's largest Raptor migration started with Golden Eagle's right over my front yard. I stopped a 1/4 of a mile from home in order to watch around 12 of them fly over the house in a west-north-westerly direction. Oh my god what a sight to see, and lucky me it is just starting! Too bad I have to spend so much time at work, I would so love to be able to spend every day of the next few weeks laying out on the lawn watching these birds fly towards their summer homes! Man how I envy The Kid, she's got a whole week here to watch them while she's on Spring Break!

Don't get me wrong, those 12 that I had stopped to watch were just the start. Over the next 2 hours I watched 115 more birds fly past. That's a total of 127 Golden Eagle's in the span of 120 minutes! I hadn't been watching the whole time and therefore I must have missed a few, but even still that's a lot of birds at one time! Silv says this is just the beginning, that the next few day's will bring a whole lot more! He also told me the order in which they'll all come back, you know what I mean, Golden's now then the Bald's followed by Turkey Buzzards and so on. But I'm kind of glad that I've forgotten what he said about that. I'm looking forward to "discovering" the order on my own.

The best part is, that with my memory the way it is, next year at this time it will all be new again...hehehe!

Well the migration is just about done, there are just the stragglers left now, but I sure don't mind what I can still watch. The buzzards haven't come in yet, but they will be soon, between the 1st and 5th of May. Now that will be lovely to watch, I can't wait till they get here! There are 7 which stay in this area and can be observed on a very regular basis. Silv call them his Crypt Keepers and they sure are beautiful to watch soaring and riding the thermals! These 7 have been banded by him and their names are Boris, Herman, Eddie, Uncle Festus and then Edgar, Allan and Poe, The Crypt Keepers!

12 comments:

  1. Your national symbol, right? :) I went "asparagus hunting" yesterday and I found a big nest up in the rocks, full of feathers and down ... no birds, though ... :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sorry Poppy, those aren't the national bird of Canada. The top pic is of a Golden Eagle and the bottom one is a Bald Eagle which is the national bird of the U.S. of A. Here in Canada our bird is the Common Loon. I don't know if you have them there or not, but they sure do have a haunting song, very beautiful and somewhat eerie to listen to when out on the water!

    ReplyDelete
  3. By the way Poppy, what is "asparagus hunting"? To me that would mean looking for the vegetable asparagus, not hunting up nests and birds. It's certainly nothing I've heard of before!

    ReplyDelete
  4. WOW! I bet that was a sight to see.

    I'm glad you were able to post. Technology is great.....WHEN IT WORKS!

    ReplyDelete
  5. That sounds absolutely wonderful. I would love to see the migration up close like you do. Over here, we're lucky if we're able to spot the odd Golden eagle or White-tailed eagle.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Reffie - Oh it was! I simply can't wait till the Buzzards come back. Those 7 I mentioned in the post stick around right through till fall, they're the last of that group to come back, and I must say, they are incredible to watch!

    Ziva - It certainly is a wonder to watch! Too bad that the weather got so bad for a while there. The migration wasn't as strong or big as it could have been, but it was still an incredible site to behold! Now to wait till next Spring to watch it all again :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. that is awesome! i bet it was a sight to see..

    ReplyDelete
  8. Brian - Oh it was, it most certainly was! Yesterday I saw a flock of Swans of all things, I've never seen those around here before! Then again, I've never seen anything so impressive as the migration either and I grew up just 10 miles north of here, go figure!

    ReplyDelete
  9. We actually have Bald Eagles in Eastern North Carolina. I saw one about a month ago flying over a golf course. They are very impressive.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Otin - They certainly are that!

    ReplyDelete

I've decided to use comment moderation simply because that way, I never miss a new comment on my posts. I'm really quite forgetful and tend to not remember how many comments had been in each post the last time I looked, so please bare with me and my memory lapses :)