September 12th - After The Rain

The start of the day was a real foggy one and not surprising, there weren't any birds flying.  In the early afternoon the skies opened up to another monsoon-like shower.  It only lasted about twenty minutes or so and it wasn't long after that, that we started to see birds.  It was great to see a number of Kestrels in the mix as they have been fairly scarce so far.  We should see many more over the next couple of days as winds from the north are predicted.  Another nice sighting was a pair of Harriers that circled together as they slowly made their way west out over the lake.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 17
American Kestrel - 13
Merlin - 1
Total - 36

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 17
Osprey - 57
Bald Eagle - 40
Northern Harrier - 16
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 442
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 57
Red-tailed Hawk - 37
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 98
Merlin - 15
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 789

Some photos from the day courtesy of Ann...

Foggy

Merlin

 

American Kestrel 

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Northern Harrier

Two nice Warblers were added to our Bird List: American Redstart and Northern Parula.  We had 3 more Loons fly overhead going south and 19 Monarch butterflies were counted heading west.

More from the Brokelman Collection...

American Redstart

Magnolia Warbler

Northern Parula

Great Blue Heron

Northern Flicker

Thank you Ann.

On hand today were John, Betty, Kris, Peter, Arvo, Terry, Ann, Phil, and Lee.

I realize tomorrow is Friday the 13th but it looks like it's going to be EXCELLENT for us at the Watch.  The prediction from wunderground.com at the time of writing is "Overcast. High of 14C. Windy. Winds from the NNW at 20 to 30 km/h".  And from theweathernetwork.com the prediction is N 25 km/h with wind gusts to 41 km/h.  From my experience with using the Weather Network 'N' would also mean NNW.  Folks, we may have the perfect storm!  Kiss the loved ones goodbye and head to the park!

Walter