Sept.30th Out With A Bang

OSPREY #200 Of The Season

Walter,Peter,Lorne,Pat,Nancy,Ron,Brad,Cori and I closed out September with a few more Osprey. Unbelievably we saw 4 more Osprey today,to finish September with a year to date total of 202. One went by carrying a medium sized fish in its talons. Our previous high season was 100. I have let Friends Of The Osprey know and they are very happy to hear this.The final tally today was 26 and consisted of :

4-Osprey

5-Northern Harrier

7-Sharpshinned Hawk

1-Coopers Hawk

4-American Kestrel

1-Merlin

4-Peregrine Falcon

We finished September with a year to date total of 3566 raptors observed. This is our best ever to be sure at this point in the season. We are very hopeful of a fantastic October,which should begin very well,given current wind predictions for the next week. Not only did we surpass 25000 total raptors seen at Rosetta McClain Raptor Watch,but the great volume of raptors seen since has us headed to top 30000 in early October! 10 records fell this month,with more undoubtedly to follow this month. Several day,month and year to date total records have fallen. With a good flight of adult Sharpshinned Hawks,we should pass our season high this month,we will definetly see more Merlin then ever before as we are only 2 Merlin away from our best season total ever. We stand at 58,our record is 60.

Month End Totals/Year To Date

Species................August..............September...Year to Date

Turkey Vulture.......21..........................58...............79

Osprey....................26........................176..............202

Bald Eagle...............9...........................43................52

Northern Harrier....8..........................170.............178

Sharpshinned Hawk...39......................2067.......2106

Coopers Hawk..............2...........................33...........35

Broadwinged Hawk....28.......................139...........167

Redtailed Hawk..........10.........................29.............39

American Kestrel........26.......................581...........607

Merlin............................6.........................52............58

Peregrine Falcon.........6..........................37.............43

Total Raptors...........181......................3385.........3566

Also seen today was a Mink which came right up to Walters feet,just the other side of the fence. This was a first for the park! Great sighting! There was one more Great Blue Heron and 3 Loons spotted today as well.