Oct 23rd - 3000th, 10000th, 60000th, and a Black Vulture!!!

Oh what a day to be at Rosetta!  Although we had less than 400 birds (I say that like it was a slow day - LOL), today we celebrated counting our 3,000th Turkey Vulture of the season, our 10,000th raptor of the season, and our 60,000th raptor since inception!  And if that wasn't enough, we also had our very first Black Vulture ever - a Lifer for some folks!  Unfortunately, this great sighting went without photos taken.  Thankyou everyone for your participation today!!!

 10000 raptors was never considered when I created my spreadsheets!!!

Another amazing fact about today was that we tallied-up totals for 12 of the 15 regularly-seen species, that doesn't happen very often at Rosetta!  A late Osprey, a Goshawk, and our long-awaited first-of-the-season Golden Eagle would've completed the set.

Today:
Black Vulture - 1
Turkey Vulture - 153
Bald Eagle - 5
Northern Harrier - 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 60
Cooper's Hawk - 7
Red-shouldered Hawk - 6
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 124
Rough-legged Hawk - 2
American Kestrel - 2
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 371

To Date:
Black Vulture - 1
Turkey Vulture - 3075
Osprey - 140
Bald Eagle - 99
Northern Harrier - 238
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3662
Cooper's Hawk - 99
Northern Goshawk - 8
Red-shouldered Hawk - 58
Broad-winged Hawk - 1418
Red-tailed Hawk - 537
Rough-legged Hawk - 3
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 697
Merlin - 125
Peregrine Falcon - 77
Total - 10237

Eagle Time (EDT):
11:43 AM - BE
12:18 PM - BE
01:35 PM - BE
02:10 PM - BE x2

So many beautiful photos from today...

a Merlin taking a break

 a young Red-shouldered Hawk

a young Bald Eagle

an adult Bald Eagle

another young Bald Eagle

a young Sharp-shinned Hawk

an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk

a young Northern Harrier

a young Red-tailed Hawk

 adult Red-tailed Hawks

Non-raptor excitement today included - Purple Finches, Eastern Bluebirds and Pine Siskins which all landed briefly on nearby treetops - likely to take a break from the gusting wind.

 a high-flying Common Loon

 a couple of Cackling Geese flying with Canada Geese

a Pine Siskin

and an Eastern Bluebird

A huge thankyou to all hawk-watchers today including - Brian, Norm, Berle, Betty, Bruce, Pat & Nancy, Manny, Liz, Carol, MC, Anne, Manfred, Lee, Ann, and all the people I forgot to write down.  Not an easy sky to work with when it's all blue, all day!!!

Gusting NW wind will continue tomorrow morning and into mid-afternoon.  Can there be anymore raptors?!!!

Walter