Raptors around the city

There are birds of prey around New Orleans all the time, and just keeping your eyes open will produce sightings as you go about your daily business.  Here is my tally from today and yesterday:

Turkey Vulture-  a dozen or more total, including six circling low over the UNO Research and Technology Park, descending like they were coming down to carrion.  Also one on the ground in a busy median on the UNO campus, surrounded by several crows- at food, presumably.

Black Vulture- every morning they are hanging around Segnette Blvd x Lapalco on the West Bank, where they roost on the tall electrical towers.

American Kestrel- one on Jamie Blvd about a quarter mile off Lapalco, where I have see it on the wire about half of the times I passed so far this fall.

Sharp-shinned Hawk- one yesterday morning over the Earhardt Expwy in Metairie, buffeted by the high winds.  Quite small- probably a male (males are smaller than females in raptors, generally).

Red-shouldered Hawk- one on a roadside wire on River Road yesterday, near Ochsner.  Another today, circling over Old Metairie not far from the Galleria.

Red-tailed Hawk- one came low overhead in Harahan in the cold early morning yesterday, chased by noisy crows.  Another perched near the Earhardt in Metairie today.

All this without the usual Cooper's Hawk! 

Good birding,

Peter