What would've otherwise been a rainy day at the hawkwatch was made exciting with the help of Ozzy the plastic owl decoy. It all began when for the second time this week, our young local Red-Tail literally whacked the owl with his feet before flying off to the top of a nearby cedar. No more than 20 minutes later, a stunning female Harrier came and swooped within inches of the owl (biggest "wish I had a camera" moment of the season thus far). Later around 2 PM, a male Kestrel took a dive at Ozzy after eating a praying mantis ontop of one of the cedars. Then just about when I thought I was done for the day, around 6:15 I look up and see a Merlin taking shots at the owl which it did several times before heading East. Goes to show that sometimes lack in hawk quantity is more than made up for in hawk entertainment thanks to Ozzy. Tomorrow might actually be a good day for hawkwatching with winds expected to stay in the NE and no rain predicted. If you like Sharpies you'll probably get them tomorrow. Just a heads up as well that this Sunday at 1 PM our naturalist Sean Graesser will be giving an Advanced Hawk ID lecture in Kiernan Hall at Audubon Greenwich. If you want to learn more about aging and sexing raptors using Feather Molt and size then we'd highly recommend this talk. Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch, October 1st 2014 Osprey: 4 Northern Harrier: 1 Sharp-Shinned Hawk: 11 American Kestrel: 6 Merlin: 1 Peregrine Falcon: 2 Unidentified: 1 TOTAL: 26