September 16th - More Eagles Than Birders!

When I went down to the park this morning I was expecting to see and count hundreds of Sharpies and Kestrels and maybe a decent number of Broad-wings, none of that happened.  Even with good wind blowing down from the north not many birds were flying overhead at all.  At 1:45 PM, an eagle was spotted flying fairly low over the north end of the park, then another eagle on the same line of flight, it was followed by another and then another and another...  A few more eagles were seen flying on a line just a little lower down behind many of the trees.  At the west end of the park, several of the eagles were observed rising up on thermals and loosely kettling together.  By the time things settled back down, most of us were speechless for several minutes.  Later in the afternoon at 3:04 PM, 6 more eagles were seen straight overhead flying in a line together one after another.  By day's end we had tallied up a jaw-dropping 27 Bald Eagles!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 25
Osprey - 10
Bald Eagle - 27
Northern Harrier - 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 71
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 5
American Kestrel - 18
Merlin - 3
Peregrine Falcon - 5
Total - 170

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 52
Osprey - 91
Bald Eagle - 80
Northern Harrier - 47
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 867
Cooper's Hawk - 10
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 68
Red-tailed Hawk - 51
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 279
Merlin - 28
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1582

Eagle Time (EDT):
10:28 AM - BE adult
11:18 AM - BE immature (non-adult)
11:51 AM - BE immature (non-adult)
12:07 PM - BE immature (non-adult)
01:16 PM - BE adult
01:45 PM - BE x12 (mixed)
02:41 PM - BE immature (non-adult)
02:50 PM - BE adult
03:04 PM - BE x6 (mixed)
03:56 PM - BE x2 immature (non-adult)

Today's 27 Bald Eagles is a new 'Day' record for the Watch, the old record was 18.  Our 'Month' record now sits at 74, up from our old record of 43.  And our 'Year' record is now at 80, up from our old record of 73.  We have loads of time left in the season to really push these records to new heights!

Some nice photos courtesy of Ann...

Some of the eagles from today!

 

A Red-tail vs Crow smackdown!

 

Merlin

 

Another 13 Loons were counted today as well as 75+ Monarchs.

 

As a big flight of birds didn't materialize as we'd hoped for, some folks left the park just before it got exciting.  Watchers included: Ann, Byron, Kris, Peter, Betty, Effie, Manny, Robert, Norm, Berle, Terry, Bruce, Cori, and Lee.

 

Walter