Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 13:14:45 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Steve Huy Subject: Re: Monument Knob Hawks 10/0700 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit There has been no regular counting at Washington Monument for a few years. This is an excellent site for viewing migrating hawks, though. Although numbers aren't as high as at some sites it provides excellent views of close raptors. From the top of the monument, a 30 foot high stone tower, one can find excellent views of birds from both above and below. I recall a particuarly memorable Novenmber day several years ago: a strong cold front passed through in the afternoon poducing freezing temps, snow showers and strong winds. Not only did I count about 240 red-tailed hawk in 30 minutes, but dozens of adult red-shouldered hawks came through. While the RTs were very high, the 'shoulders came in below the tower, circling over the rocks at its base until they were directly above us. Quite a spectacular view of what I consider to be the most attractive hawk in the east. This is a site that needs regular counting. And it is much closer than many of the raptor hot-spots in the area. ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================