Early Osprey on Mono Lake

Early Osprey on Mono Lake

From: River Gates
Sighting_Date: 2/18/2005
Remote Name: 209.221.205.174
Date: 18 Feb 2005
Time: 18:09:36 -0500

Comments

Took a walk this afternoon to the closed snow-enshrouded Visitor's Center and observed a pair of Red-tailed Hawks chase off an Osprey. I first heard the Osprey vocalizing from afar near the Old Marina area, I couldn't see the bird at this point but could hear distinctive medium-pitched whiny call notes that were repeated in sets of 4 to 8, with a 30 second interval between sets. A few minutes later I saw a pair of red-tails chasing after a raptor-sized white-breasted bird. I watched the three birds fly from Old Marina south along the lakeshore towards the Lee Vining Creek delta. The bird was slightly larger than the red-tails with dark wing tips, tail and head. The bird banked a few times to avoid the red-tails affording me some great but distant looks at its general size and shape compared to the red-tails, wing morphology and flight pattern. The red-tails chased the bird half way to the delta and perched approx. 150 meters from the lakeshore on a T-post. The only other thing I can think of it possibly being would be a Ferruginous Hawk, making the vocalizations an unrelated observation. Hard to say but I know it wasn’t a Bald Eagle, Rough-legged or a Red-tailed Hawk. Seems to be a bit early especially considering the local winter conditions, no winter records in Gaines.

Last Updated August 09, 2007