Hawkwatch at Ramona 1/8/11

We received our annual newsletter about the Hawkwatch event in Ramona and decided to attend this weekend. We had a great time watching the free flying prairie falcon and other hawks being shown by their handlers. There were several wild hawks and eagles perched in trees and on rocky outcrops in the grasslands for the scopes to be trained on including a golden eagle.

We always like to see the burrowing owls that are on the property, not sure if they are really wild or contained is some way but unfortunately they were being shy today and staying in the burrows. While we chatted to the docent we were lucky to see three immature bald eagles fly overhead, two of them circling around each other in a playful manner. A volunteer we spoke to who had lots of experience was really excited and exclaimed she had never seen three 'baldies' in the sky at once before.

As we were leaving I asked about the barn owls that I'd overheard someone mention and they were just over our heads in the huge palm tree in the yard.

Back at the car Simon got out his telescope and had a look around and we at last saw a burrowing owl as will as some western blue birds then we drove down to the pond and did some bird watching. saw lots of western meadowlarks, ferruginous hawks, snow geese, white-fronted geese and various ducks. Well worth a visit and so close.