Rough-legged Hawk, Great Swamp NWR

Rough-legged Hawk, Great Swamp NWR, NJ, Feb. 6, 2015 (photo by Chuck Hantis)

(Click on the photo for a larger image.)

At long last, the first photo-documented Rough-legged Hawk in the mocosocoBirds territory for 2015 – Chuck Hantis found this light morph raptor on Pleasant Plains Road, Great Swamp NWR shortly after noon today. Other birders and Chuck searched later in the afternoon but were unable to relocate it. Nonetheless, this is the first Rough-legged Hawk in Morris County for 2015. One flyover reported in Bernards Twp. on January 19 is the only Rough-legged Hawk known of in Somerset County this year.

Rough-legged Hawk, Great Swamp NWR, NJ, Feb. 6, 2015 (photo by Chuck Hantis)

Rough-legged Hawk, Great Swamp NWR, NJ, Feb. 6, 2015 (photo by Chuck Hantis)

Waterfowl in Morris County

Alan Boyd reports the following in what little open water remains in western Morris County:

Three Redheads (1 male, 2 females) are at Clyde Potts Reservoir.

2 Common Goldeneye, 125 Ring-necked Ducks, 2 Bufflehead and 1 American Coot are at the bi-county Furnace Pond in Netcong and Stanhope (Morris and Sussex counties; take your pick or take both).

eBird Checklists for the mocosocoBirds region may be viewed via eBird’s Region Explorer. Use the following links:

• Morris County
• Somerset County

The eBird Hotspot Primer is here and can also be accessed via the Hotspot menu item on the mocosocoBirds.com website.

@mocosocoBirds at Twitter is another communications stream. Instant field reports and links of interest are tweeted throughout the day. The latest tweets appear on the sidebar of this page. One can follow mocosocoBirds at Twitter or link to @mocosocoBirds.

Finis