September 12th - The Return Of BIGFRANK!

Today we welcomed the return of our friend BIGFRANK to the Raptor Watch and before long he was back at it calling out the birds "There's a bird in the gap and another coming over the centre" - ah, music to my ears! Unfortunately today was not a great day for bird movement, it was hot, hazy with very little cloud cover. We did manage to find a total of 37 birds flying through including 2 more Osprey.

Today:
Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 24
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 7
Total - 37

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 14
Osprey - 46
Bald Eagle - 20
Northern Harrier - 36
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 484
Cooper's Hawk - 10
Northern Goshawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 19
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
American Kestrel - 105
Merlin - 25
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 767

Frank and I doing a load test to one of the park benches.


Red-tailed Hawk (local)


Cooper's Hawk (local)


Turkey Vulture (local)


On hand today were: Berle, Bob, Charles, Terry 2, Pat, Barb, Betty, Joe, and of course, BIGFRANK. Also, for those who know him, retired park worker Billy stopped by this afternoon to say hello to everybody.

Here's a photo of some of the group from today's Watch.


Walter