Posted by David La Puma on October 08, 2001 at 23:06:13:
Thanks for the inspiration CJ!
I just thought I'd put the word out that Wednesday looks like it could be a good raptor day at the hawkwatch on Grassy Key. (Tuesday might be too...but I can't go then!)
If anyone wants to carpool down on Wednesday, please let me know. (305) 567 9377.
Also- the Keys Birding Festival is this weekend and the keynote speaker is Casey Lott, the staff ornithologist of the Natl. Audubon Society Tavernier office (and the Raptor Guru of the Keys Hawkwatch). Details can be found at: http://hawkwatch.org/keysfest.htm
If you're heading to the hawkwatch, there are a few things you should consider:
1) Everything above 1000 feet is a kestrel.
2) The Irish are here, and they're mad as hell.
3) pointing skyward and exclaiming "Up there in the Blue" will not earn you any brownie points
4) No alcoholic beverages in the park...but at this time of the year it's always good form to have a bottle of bubbly in the trunk incase they beat the record for # of peregrines seen in one day (I think it's somewhere around 375 set in 1999)
5) Bring snacks- the more well-fed the hawkwatcher, the more likely they'll turn one of those high flying kestrels into a lifer gyrfalcon for you.
Hope to see you there!
cheers
David