[SBB] Clifftop Bluff (aka "hawk buffet")

[Chuq Von Rospach <[[email protected]]>]

went and spent some time at Clifftop bluff in Half Moon bay again  
today. All I can say is, well, wow. Since we already have a hawk  
hill, I'm hereby declaring this place "hawk buffet", at least for now...

Nice and sunny today (unlike Fitzgerald, which was socked in when I  
visited), with mild winds. When I arrived, I counted three Northern  
harriers and two White-Tailed kites actively hunting.

Big day for white-tailed kites. Over the couple of hours I was there,  
at one point I had five flying and hunting and three more on the  
ground at one time, and my best estimate is a total of 11 or 12  
individuals. It was busy enough that at one point, when I put my lens  
on a kite sitting in a bush, I saw a second one in a bush further  
down the field, and behind THAT a northern harrier hunting. It was  
just amazing, everywhere you looked, sharp claws, hooked beaks and  
shiny eyes...

The kites settled down about 11, to be replaced by red-tails. When I  
left roughly noonish, there was still a harrier and four red-tails  
there (two soaring and hunting, two perched and watching).

Birds seen:

White-tailed kites: 11-12
Northern Harriers: 4-6
Red-tailed hawks: 4-7
American Kestrel: 1 (near the entrance, alternatively sitting on a  
dead tree or on the wires near the houses)

Also seen:

Western Meadowlark -- flew in over the parking lot, sat on the fence  
for about 30 seconds, then flew all the way back out to the south again.

Says Phoebe -- middle of the main field in one of the bushes.  I may  
have photos.

2 ravens, which came in and sat in a tree near a large red-tailed,  
which studiously ignored them. They were clearly considering mayhem,  
decided they had other things to do, and flew off again, making lots  
of editorial commentary.

Also heard were a couple of song sparrows and the (blah)-crowned, a  
few. For some reason, the hawk population seems to be discouraging  
other birds, other than the blackbirds and starlings.



--
Chuq Von Rospach
[[email protected]]
http://chuqui.typepad.com



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