October 18th - Some Day Our Birds Will Come!

Several birders arrived early this morning including myself as we were expecting a decent flight of birds.  With near perfect conditions we sat and waited...and waited...  Birds came but they were really few and far between.  Wind up high appeared to WNW and lower down it seemed to be from various directions throughout the day.  I'm starting to get the feeling that we may be at the park until Christmas looking for hawks!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 10
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 10
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 29

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 1350
Osprey - 117
Bald Eagle - 95
Northern Harrier - 88
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1338
Cooper's Hawk - 33
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 5
Broad-winged Hawk - 139
Red-tailed Hawk - 117
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 463
Merlin - 51
Peregrine Falcon - 39
Total - 3836

Monarch migration was much slower today with only 13 counted.  6 more Loons were observed.  Our first Dark-eyed Juncos of the season were seen flying from shrub to shrub and a late Northern Parula was heard calling by me and beautifully photographed by Ann.

Here's a couple of fabulous captures courtesy of Paul Reeves...

Hermit Thrush

Winter Wren

On-hand today were: Paul, Carol, Berle, Dave, Ron, Terry, Allison, Patti, Manny, Peter, and Ann.  Thank you everyone for another great day despite the lack of birds.

I forgot to mention that the unidentified eagle that we saw back on October 14th will remain just that 'unidentified'.  After reviewing photos taken that day it was realized that none were of an eagle.  Not enough field markings were seen through binoculars or scopes to positively ID the bird 100%.  It happens!

Walter