Oct 14th - Our Biggest Day, 12 Species!

The dark skies, light winds, and spitting rain during the morning hours sure had us wondering but eventually that gave way to a mix of sun and clouds and the birds starting to fly overhead.  Unfortunately, many birds were quite high up which made viewing difficult for some.  We had a good number of Turkey Vultures pass to the north of the park but I think we counted most of them.  One Red-shouldered Hawk was correctly ID'd as a Broad-winged Hawk by Ron Pittaway on Facebook.  Thankyou Ron!  Overall a wonderful day at the park with 12 out of 15 species being observed.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 209
Bald Eagle - 2
Northern Harrier - 8
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 169
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Northern Goshawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 5
American Kestrel - 13
Merlin - 2
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 415

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 457
Osprey - 91
Bald Eagle - 57
Northern Harrier - 139
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2295
Cooper's Hawk - 21
Northern Goshawk - 3
Red-shouldered Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 89
Red-tailed Hawk - 28
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 1
American Kestrel - 294
Merlin - 89
Peregrine Falcon - 42
Total - 3608

Eagle Time (DST):
12:10pm - BE (unknown)
03:00pm - BE (unknown)

juvenile Broad-winged Hawk (Kris)

Other Birds:
Common Loon - 27
Common Raven - 4
Eastern Bluebird - 1 small flock
Pine Siskin - several

Butterflies:
Monarch - 15 counted!

Hawkwatchers:
Lee, Terry, Mark, Peter, Gunnar, Kris, John, Dave and Mary Beth, Manny, Hugh, Sheldon, Berle, plus a few others

Weather Prediction:
Oct 15th - mainly sunny in the morning switching to risk of a thunderstorm in the afternoon, SW 20km/h gusting to 33km/h switching to W 25km/h gusting to 48km/h (theweathernetwork.com)  The SW wind should die-off around 8:00am and then switch to W, rain should start around 1:00pm.  If I go to the park it likely won't be for long tomorrow morning.

Walter