Aug 27th - Our Best 'August' Day Ever!

Wow, I didn't see that coming!  When I was walking down to the park this morning I was concerned that it might still be a little too early for the migration to begin despite the predicted good northwest wind and that we would not see many birds flying.  My mind was put at ease when we started to see a few Kestrels and Sharpies coming along.  A lot of today's flight was way up high but with so much help I think we found most of the birds.  We ended up with a grand total of 158 birds spread out over 10 species.  Throw in a few 'local' Turkey Vulture sightings and make it 11 out of 15!  Thank you everyone for all your hard work today, even with cloud cover it wasn't easy.

Today:
Osprey - 7
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 24
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 60
Red-tailed Hawk - 8
American Kestrel - 43
Merlin - 3
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 158

To Date:
Osprey - 33
Bald Eagle - 9
Northern Harrier - 11
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 49
Cooper's Hawk - 3
Broad-winged Hawk - 68
Red-tailed Hawk - 8
American Kestrel - 52
Merlin - 8
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 243

Eagle Time (EDT):
12:55 PM - BE (immature)
01:10 PM - BE (immature)

We now sit at 243 birds for the month.  We need just 8 more birds to break our all-time high.  That record will likely fall tomorrow.

Broad-winged Hawk (Kris)

Hummer (Lynn)

In other birding news, we had another Common Nighthawk early in the morning flying eastward.  In the afternoon we had a Cape May Warbler and a pair of Magnolia Warblers.

Butterfly numbers were fairly slim again today but this afternoon we had our first ever for the park Red-spotted Purple as well as a Spicebush Swallowtail and a Pipevine Swallowtail.  Two more Giant Swallowtails also flew through.  Dragonflies filled the sky this afternoon!  What a sight!

Red-spotted Purple (Lynn)

 

Spicebush Swallowtail (Walter)

Pipevine Swallowtail (Walter)

Good crowd today including: Gunnar, Kris, Allison, Ron, Jean, Don, Pat & Nancy, Carol, Hugh, Bruce, Bill, Berle, Peter, Betty, and Lee.  Many thanks again!

Northwest wind continues on Thursday, hopefully there are a couple of birds left.

Walter