[mou] Rice county hawks

[Dave Bartkey]

Good afternoon everybody!
  Went out to River Bend Nature Center this morning in anticipation of seeing some hawk migration and sure wasn't disappointed! I
met up with Tom Boevers and Forest Strnad while there and together we saw probably close to 350-400 Broad -winged Hawks fly over.
Most in kettles. This is a conservative estimate. Also seen were 10 Coopers Hawks, 4 Ospreys, 5-6 Turkey Vultures, 1 Red-tail Hawk,
and 1 Peregrine Falcon. Interesting about the falcon was that we were watching a Coopers Hawk and the Peregrine came in from the
west and started fighting with the hawk. This only lasted a few seconds, but was interesting nonetheless. I see others are seeing
big numbers of Broad-wings too. Our biggest kettle had 60 birds, give or take. It is quite beautiful and somewhat overwhelming to
see soooo many birds at once like that. I could have sat out there all day! And would have if not for the boredom of an 8 year old
daughter!

Good birding all!
Dave Bartkey
Faribault,MN
cerulean66@charter.net