More Zion...

Last week the weather looked pretty promising early in the week for some late fall hawk-watching. With this in mind I decided to use some of my banked hours and took Thursday and Friday off to head down to Zion Road -- one of my newest and favourite eBird hotspots to bird.

I unfortunately got a late start on Thursday morning, largely due to the World Series insane game, however, it was a pretty exciting game. I made quick stops at the Ridgetown and Blenheim lagoons, getting a pair of Snow Geese at Ridgetown and the long-staying pair of Cattle Egrets at Blenheim.

After leaving Blenheim and getting onto Hwy. 3, it was evident that a great hawk flight was moving forward, I managed to get a light Rough-legged and a Red-shouldered Hawk quickly before pulling into the hawk-watch location at the end of Zion Road.

From about 11:30 until 2:30 the flight was right over-top of me, at the lakeshore. Highlights included 5 Golden Eagles, 429 Red-tailed, 62 Red-shouldered, 3 Rough-legged Hawks, and 2 Northern Goshawks! Here's my eBird checklist for the day: http://ebird.org/ebird/canada/view/checklist/S32358103

Friday, the flight didn't really materialize as I had hoped for, but I was joined by Nathan Miller. Nonetheless, Nathan and I made the most of our situation and enjoyed the morning flight of passerines, getting some pretty good numbers of things like Cedar Waxwings (523) and American Goldfinches (582), as well as a single Golden Eagle and Rough-legged Hawk. Our real highlight, however, came shortly after 11am, when an adult Broad-winged Hawk(!) flew over, getting harassed by some A. Crows. http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S32372589

And if this is pretty exciting to you as it is for me, there's a vacant piece of property for sale for $24,900 a few hundred metres from where I've been setting up to watch....who knows, but that property would likely have a pretty sweet yard list if a birder built a house there...