Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Another Day, Another Migrant Turkey Vulture

I monitored the area offshore from Vesper Point between 09:30 - and 12:30 today. With very good conditions, there were very few raptors observed. This probably means that migration is slowing, which only makes sense.

At 9:48 a single Turkey Vulture was observed soaring from Texada Island towards West Ballenas. It used the typical route, and it took about 20 minutes to travel from Texada to Vancouver Island. At 11:06 I had a Sharp-shinned Hawk that did essentially the same thing, although once it was at South Ballenas, it flew directly across to Vesper Point, using powered flight. It did soar and use thermals on the initial crossing though.  

The only other raptor observed was an adult Bald Eagle which appeared to fly directly from the Sunshine Coast to South Ballenas Island, using a combination of soaring and powered flight.

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