October 1st - Wow!

BIGFRANK got to the park at 7:00 AM and already had about 10 birds before I arrived twenty minutes later. We both thought this was going to be the day. By 10:00 AM when we were already up over 200 birds, we knew for sure!

Kestrel after Kestrel to start the day and at one point 17 zipped through in the span of about 90 seconds. During the afternoon I didn't see a bird with my binos for roughly 10 minutes because I was so busy writing down what everyone was calling out!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 774 (new 'day' record!)
Osprey - 11
Bald Eagle - 11 (adult 10:20, 11:35) (juvenile 9:43, 9:50, 12:40, 1:40, 2:49, 4:11 x2, 4:16, 4:50)
Northern Harrier - 48
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 144
Cooper's Hawk - 14 (new 'day' record!)
Red-shouldered Hawk - 4
Broad-winged Hawk - 6
Red-tailed Hawk - 46
American Kestrel - 233 (new 'day' record!)
Merlin - 11 (new 'day' record!)
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Total - 1305 (new 'day' record!)

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 896
Osprey - 103
Bald Eagle - 39
Northern Harrier - 133
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1247
Cooper's Hawk - 42
Northern Goshawk - 4
Red-shouldered Hawk - 4
Broad-winged Hawk - 748
Red-tailed Hawk - 60
American Kestrel - 531
Merlin - 67
Peregrine Falcon - 19
Total - 3893

Some spectacular shots taken today even though most birds were a little high up. Great job guys!

Sharp-shinned Hawk

A Sharpie heading due south!

A Red-tailed Hawk and Turkey Vulture seeing eye to eye.

Red-tailed Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

Bald Eagle

American Kestrel

Turkey Vulture

Some non-raptor sightings included: 2 Cackling Geese, Belted Kingfisher, Pine Siskin, and 2 flocks of Sandhill Cranes - about 50 Cranes total!

Belted Kingfisher

A bus load of hawk watchers today including: BIGFRANK, Lorne, Peter, Bob, Pat, Nancy, Mike 2, Mike 3, Berle, Mary, Katherine, Norm, Freida, Ron, Huey, Tom, Allison, Bruce, Phil, Tim, Jean, Barb, Pam, Brad, Theresa, Bob 2, Gunnar, Mark, Leslie 2, Betty, Frank, Margaret, Sheldon, Randy, Ann 2, Julie, plus many others that I didn't get the names of unfortunately. A big thankyou to all for your help in spotting and ID'ing birds today! Also, thanks for all the coffee/donuts (yesterday and today), it's very much appreciated.

Just some of the crowd.

Walter