Nov 7th - 11,000th Raptor Counted!!!

Amazing!  Who would've ever imagined counting 11,000 birds of prey during a single season at our little hawkwatch?  Certainly not me!  I cannot stress enough how grateful I am for all your help spotting, photographing and identifying hawks as they've passed overhead.  The high count this fall is a true testament to all of your hard work.  Today was yet another one of those somewhat difficult days with heavy cloud-cover making many distant birds appear very dark through both binoculars and cameras.

Highlights today included sightings of both eagle species, a few Red-shouldereds, a couple of Goshawks and a couple of Roughies.  We ended-up seeing 12 of the 15 regularly seen species.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 2
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 8
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 7
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Northern Goshawk - 2
Red-shouldered Hawk - 6
Red-tailed Hawk - 80
Rough-legged Hawk - 2
Golden Eagle - 2
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 114

To Date:
Black Vulture - 1
Turkey Vulture - 3303
Osprey - 140
Bald Eagle - 105
Northern Harrier - 266
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3703
Cooper's Hawk - 111
Northern Goshawk - 18
Red-shouldered Hawk - 79
Broad-winged Hawk - 1418
Red-tailed Hawk - 935
Rough-legged Hawk - 7
Golden Eagle - 9
American Kestrel - 697
Merlin - 128
Peregrine Falcon - 80
Total - 11000

Eagle Time (EST):
12:16 PM - GE
01:30 PM - GE
01:53 PM - BE

Another wonderful collection of photos...

(Mike D)

(Ann)

(Mike D)

(Mike D)

(Mike D)

(Mike D)

the above 7 photos are of Red-tailed Hawks (Mike D)

Northern Goshawk (Ann)

Northern Goshawk (Mike D)

a high-flying and distant juvenile Golden Eagle (Mike D)

an adult Red-shouldered Hawk (Ann)

another adult Red-shouldered Hawk (Mike D)

a light morph Rough-legged Hawk (Mike D)

Some of today's non-raptor highlights included - Hermit Thrushes, Fox Sparrows, Eastern Bluebirds, an Eastern Phoebe and 31 migrating Loons.

migrating Cedar Waxwings (Mike D)

a friendly Eastern Phoebe (Mike D)

Here's a great photo of most of today's motley crew...

(Ann)

A huge thankyou to Mike D, Kris, Terry, Don, Berle, Peter, Betty, Pat & Nancy, Lee, Ron, Matt, Manny, Ann, John, Howie, Lynn, Trudy and anyone I missed.

Saturday's forecast for light rain all day will likely keep me away from the park.

Walter