My FOY (first of year) Rough-legged Hawk

And two additional ‘firsts’, all yesterday morning.  All three of them came within a time span of 14 minutes.

As you might expect from a post like this, these photos are more about ‘firsts’ than they are about great photography.

 

Around here, FOY Rough-legged Hawks are a pretty big deal so I felt I should mark the occasion by posting a photo. I was actually photographing the bird in the last two photos below when this light morph male Roughie unexpectedly flew in from the north, making a quick, furtive pass before he was gone.

I was lucky to get any shots of him at all because right in the middle of a burst, my battery died. I need to watch my battery status more carefully, especially with the Canon R5.

I was curious about when I photographed my FOY Roughie in past years so I researched my older blog posts, with these results:

  • 2016 – October 26
  • 2019 – November 12
  • 2021 – November 5
  • 2023 – November 17

So this sighting yesterday, November 11, was just about on par. I hope it’s a good winter for Roughies around here. Last winter I saw very few. From several reports I saw, I believe many of them – more than usual – stayed a little further north in Idaho.

 

 

Just a few minutes before I photographed the Roughie I spotted this lone Turkey Vulture sunning itself on a faraway fence post. I couldn’t get any closer because to do so I’d have had to cross private land.

I believe this is the first time I’ve seen a vulture in November and I’m virtually positive I’ve never seen a vulture this late in the year. I was very surprised to see it. We have snow coming in later today (it’s raining now) so I hope this guy headed south later in the day yesterday.

Cornell’s Birds of the World has this to say about the timing of fall migration in western Turkey Vultures:

“Migratory individuals in western North America leave their breeding areas in Washington, California, and Arizona to begin their outbound migration between 1 September and 23 October with the average start day around 4 October.”

 

 

I was photographing this handsome Prairie Falcon when the Roughie flew by. It’s the first Prairie Falcon I’ve photographed since December 5, 2023, so this is also a FOY bird.  I wish it hadn’t been on a utility pole but the flip side is that it let me get close – quite unusual for a normally skittish Prairie Falcon.

 

 

Of course, it took off away from me and I never got any flight shots that didn’t include the pole and/or wires. Because of the way the falcon’s body mostly conforms to the framing of the pole and wires, if the falcon had only looked back at me I think I would have quite liked this photo. At least it gives us a good look at much of the falcon’s ventral plumage. And its slightly flared alula.

So, it was a memorable morning to get three firsts in such a short time period. In a way, that’s “first” #4 because it was the first time that’s happened, ever.

Ron

 

33 Comments

  1. Not sure how I missed this yesterday. What a delightful day of firsts! 😃

    I got to watch a bit of an aerial squabble between two young hawks yesterday as I was waiting to get on the freeway — almost missed my green arrow.

  2. Love your shots any way you look at them. When my folks lived at Dayton, Wy which is 30 miles from Sheridan where I now live. We had those turkey vultures that roosted in the big cotton wood trees across the highway US14 all summer long. It was fun to watch them come and go all spring and summer long. Not sure if true, but heard long ago that they love to be near people.

  3. Arwen Lynch-Poe, Professional Joy Seeker

    Love all the shots. 😀 I can’t choose so I’ll just go OOOOH at all of them. 😀

  4. Finally feeling mostly recovered from a bad bout with flu (and just barely from election hangover), so back to reading your posts and exclaiming upon your fabulous birds—FOY Roughie and Prairie Falcon, with a late-departing Turkey Vulture!—all of which make me happy to be a vicarious observer here. Hoping TUVU gets away properly before the snow flies, and that you’ll see many more lovely raptors this season! 😊

  5. Turkey Vultures are one of my favorite birds for many reasons. Their migratory patterns are especially interesting. Most of our vultures here in the Pacific Northwest have the longest migration, flying all the way to northern South America. During that flight they fly over vultures resident in southern California and Central America. In the east, some go as far south as Florida but many are found as far north as southern New York all winter. For a very, very long time here in the southern Willamette Valley Turkey Vultures have been present every winter. In recent years a few have been seen in other parts of western Oregon in winter as well. I don’t know if our winter birds are resident or if they come here from further north, but we have them every year.

  6. The vulture photo sums up my feelings after the election. Very poignant.
    I appreciate your daily visual treats. Thanks, Mandy

  7. Great finds! On Sunday I went to BRMBR and I saw a roughie along Forest Street. It was not close and a couple of harriers were harassing it. I watched it for awhile through my lens. Not much to photograph at the refuge, too many hunters. I was hoping to see some snipes again. Snipes were all over last year despite the hunters. It was still a beautiful day and there are hundreds of swans to the north, it was lovely to hear their calls carry through the air. They have smoothed out the piles of dirt on the east side of the loop along with taking out the road to the old observation area. The newly exposed dirt is attracting all kinds of small sparrows, pipits and horned larks

  8. What a wonderful day. I am v happy for you (and us). You left out those very handsome britches on the Prairie. Shame on you.

  9. Congrats. on a very positive day. Speaking of Roughies, last January we went to the Klamath Basin , where normally we see Roughies, and saw only one!

  10. Ron– thanks so much for re-posting your prior Prairie Falcon
    photos ! If I’d ever before seen that last image on the third post–
    I’d surely have remembered it– the one with the intestinal “spaghetti”.
    I was interested in the behavior post-kill, where the falcon left its
    kill in the water for some time before beginning to consume it….

  11. Beautiful! Hawks have been “passing through” here for a few weeks now – mainly see them on the power poles going to town tho a few do cruise our little valley and roost in the yard now and then taking out an Asian Collered Dove(wish they’d get more)……. 😉 Falcon IS gorgeous… 🙂

    Big game hunting season is on. Hunters successful so far and the scavengers are eating well….. 😉

  12. 3 beautiful creatures in 14 minutes – what a fabulous quarter of an hour for you! And a wonderful way to start our day, too.
    I hope the TV was warming up in prep for catching the southbound train. I’ve still seen a few of them up here in Central WA.
    Thanks for the links to the previous prairie falcon posts.

  13. Really like the turkey vulture shot. 😀 Nice pose, great setting and good light.

  14. Beautiful shots of the Prairie Falcon regardless of the location. I have only seen one once here and it was a dramatic time because it had killed a coot, but then our ferocious lady Northern Harrier came and took it away from the falcon.
    I have never seen a Roughie here. Our Prescott birds list shows that they do sometimes appear here in the winter.

    • “I have never seen a Roughie here.”

      Everett, most of them don’t migrate that far south. But a few go as far south as northcentral Mexico so keep your eyes peeled this winter.

  15. What a good morning for you ! I don’t remember seeing a post
    of a Prairie Falcon on FP before ? What a gorgeous bird it is !

  16. Four firsts! How fourtunate! It tickles my counting quirk. Nice shots as well. I was unaware of turkey vulture migration. Thanks for the teacher moment.

  17. Congrats on a great morning.

    Utility pole or not, that Prairie is just gorgeous.

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