Birds of prey took the limelight on the 1970 Alabama Christmas Counts with four Peregrine Falcons at Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge, one at Birmingham (its 5th Christmas count record), a Bald Eagle at Eufaula and another within the count period at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, and visitors from the West and North at Wheeler in the form of an immature Swainson’s Hawk (6th record for Alabama and 2nd for the Tennessee Valley of this primarily western species) and a light-phased Rough-legged Hawk (which, although a rare and erratic northern visitor, is being noted almost annually in Alabama-see Imhof, Thomas A., “The Season Fall 1969”, Alabama Birdlife (1970), 17(3-4): 66-7.) Wheeler also reported an inland state record in abundance for Sparrow Hawks (25), while the large congregation of 82 Turkey Vultures at Mobile, seen by several parties in marshes off the Cochrane Causeway, set a state record. A female Pigeon Hawk at Birmingham was its 3rd Christmas count record.
Author: Robert R. Reid, Jr.
Volume Number: 19 Year Published: 1971
Issue Number: 1
Page Number: 15
Link to article: http://birdlife.aosbirds.org/1971/Vol 19 No. 1_1971_p15-20.pdf
Link to the full issue of BirdLife: http://birdlife.aosbirds.org/1971/Vol 19 No. 1_1971.pdf
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