Sep 19th - Slow Day Today

With scattered showers all over the place today we weren't expecting a big movement of raptors and that's exactly what we got - only 16 birds.  We'll try again tomorrow.

Today:
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 15
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 16

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 61
Bald Eagle - 21
Northern Harrier - 59
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1419
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 87
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 222
Merlin - 43
Peregrine Falcon - 10
Total - 1941

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

Other Birds:
Red-tailed Hawk - local bird, caught a chipmunk for lunch today

Lunch time! (Lee)

Butterflies:
Monarch - 54 counted today

Mammals:
Woodchuck (Groundhog)

Hawk Watchers:
Carol, Trudy, Phil, Ann, Hugh, Betty, Lee, and Allison.  Thankyou!

Weather Prediction:
Sep 20th - sunny, N 10km/h to start, then quickly switching to S 10km/h (theweathernetwork.com)

See you at the park!
Walter

Sep 18th - Red-bellied Woodpecker!

Oh sorry, the title should have said something in reference to the fact that this was day 5 of the Sharpie festival.  The only difference with today was that there were whispy clouds in the sky to add a nice backdrop for our viewing of the birds.

Today:
Osprey - 2
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 143
American Kestrel - 11
Merlin - 4
Total - 162

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 61
Bald Eagle - 21
Northern Harrier - 59
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1404
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 87
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 222
Merlin - 43
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1925

Eagle Time (DST):
11:11am - BE (imm)

American Kestrel (Kevin)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Kevin)

Osprey (Kevin)

American Kestrel (Mike)

Merlin (Mike)

Merlin (Mike)

 Sharp-shinned Hawk (Mike)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Lee)

 ...and another Sharpie! (Lee)

Birds:
Blue Jay - number of birds migrating over the park increased today
Red-bellied Woodpecker - mixed in with a flock of Jays

Butterflies:
Monarch - 250+ observed.  Numbers flying west increased in the afternoon.

Mammals:
Nothing of note

Hawk Watchers:
Mike, Lee, Terry, Allison, Betty, Norm, Carol, Berle, Hugh, Kevin, Dahye, and MC.  Thankyou all for another great day!

Weather Prediction:
Sep 19th - risk of thunderstorms, S 25km/h switching to SW 35km/h and gusting up to near 60km/h! (theweathernetwork.com)

Walter

Sep 17th - Yes, More Sharpies!

No surprise today as the Sharpie parade continued over the park.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 132
American Kestrel - 1
Merlin - 3
Total - 138

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 59
Bald Eagle - 20
Northern Harrier - 58
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1261
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 87
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 211
Merlin - 39
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1763

Birds:
Almost zero birds in the park today!
Blue Jay - numbers are picking up as their migration begins over the park

Butterflies:
Monarch - 87 counted, 3 tagged

Mammals:
Nothing of note

Hawk Watchers:
Carol, Dave, Barb, Arvo, Betty, Hugh, Berle, Dave, Lorne, John, and a few others.  Thankyou again!

Weather Prediction:
Sep 18th - sunny, S 15-25km/h and gusting (theweathernetwork.com)

See you in the shade of the maple tree!
Walter

Big Frank(ie) Video...

Sep 16th - The 'Sharpie' Festival Continues...

Yet another low wind and all blue sky kinda day!  Of the 169 raptors counted today, 163 of them were Sharpies!  It was another gorgeous day just to sit in the shade and enjoy the company and watch the birds.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 163
Merlin - 1
Total - 169

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 58
Bald Eagle - 20
Northern Harrier - 57
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1129
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 87
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 210
Merlin - 36
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1625

Birds:
Blue Jay - a few small groups flying west over the park

Butterflies:
Monarch - 200+ flying through, many along the top edge of the bluffs.  A Monarch that Terry tagged on August 31st was accidentally caught again today - 16 days later!  Once released, it tookoff towards the west and out of the park.

Mammals:
Nothing of note

Hawk Watchers:
Allison, Manny, Terry, Lorne, Bob, MC and her father, Pat & Nancy, Arvo, Liz, Peter, Hugh, Betty, Cori, Jen, Ann, plus several others.  Thankyou everyone!

Hawk Watchers Stung (by Hornets/Wasps):
Walter, Ann - that makes a total of 4 of us for the week!

Weather Prediction:
Sep 17th - sunny, S 5-15km/h (theweathernetwork.com)  Another day of Sharpies?!!!

See you at the park,
Walter

Sep 15th - Another Great Flight of Sharpies!

The light wind blowing off the lake was not strong enough to affect the flight today.  Again today most Sharpies passed directly overhead.  Although numbers were a little lower than yesterday, we still had a fairly steady stream of birds...and when there were no birds...there were Monarchs!

Today:
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 147
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 154

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 57
Bald Eagle - 20
Northern Harrier - 53
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 966
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 87
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 210
Merlin - 35
Peregrine Falcon - 9
Total - 1456

Eagle Time (DST):
8:30am - BE (imm)

Birds:
Common Raven - 2 flying over the park
Parakeet - 1 possibly flying through the park heading west

Butterflies:
Monarch - 143 counted

Mammals:
Nothing of note

Hawk Watchers:
Carol, Betty, Terry, Lorne, Liz, Hugh, Berle, Manny, Arvo, and several others.  Thanks everyone, it's never easy dealing with an all blue sky!

Weather Prediction:
Sep 16th - sunny, SW 10km/h switching to S 15km/h (theweathernetwork.com)

See you along the fence!
Walter

Sep 14th - A Nice Movement of Sharpies

It's now 3 in the morning!  Enjoy

Today:
Osprey - 7
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 14
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 253
American Kestrel - 20
Merlin - 2
Total - 297

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 57
Bald Eagle - 19
Northern Harrier - 49
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 819
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 87
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 210
Merlin - 34
Peregrine Falcon - 8
Total - 1302

Eagle Time (DST):
4:17pm - BE (imm)

Osprey (Walter)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Kevin)

Northern Harrier (Lee)

Osprey (Walter)

local Red-tailed Hawk (Kris)

(this was likely the most controlled decent we'll ever see!)

Sharp-shinned Hawk (Kevin)

American Kestrel eating a dragonfly on the wing! (Kris)

Merlin, also eating a dragonfly (Kris)

(originally ID'd and counted as a Kestrel...oops!) 

another lovely Osprey (Walter)

same Osprey (Ann)

Merlin (Ann)

an Osprey that tried to sneak by us (Arvo)

a passing female Northern Harrier (Charlie)

Birds:
Cedar Waxwing - several flocks passing overhead early in the day
Warblers - several species around the park

Butterflies:
Monarch - 150+

Mammals:
Nothing of note

Hawk Watchers:
Lee, Peter, Betty, Gunnar, Allison, Don, Glen, Dave, Kris, Pat & Nancy, Hugh, Kevin, Arvo, Richard, Manny, Charlie, Eleanor, Ann, Trudy, and a couple of others who stopped by.  Thankyou for your help today!

A word of caution - Hornets/wasps stung 2 of our watchers today!

Weather Prediction:
Sep 15th - sunny, SW 15km/h (theweathernetwork.com)

See you at the Watch,
Walter

Sep 13th - OMG, What a Day!

As most of you know, I personally have been watching migrating hawks at the park since 2008 - never have I seen a day like today!  I'm sure none of the other regulars at Rosetta had either.  Just the strangest thing.  I know weather plays a huge part in bird migration but today was impossible to figure out.  Although I haven't checked, my best guess would be that there was rain somewhere to the west of the park.

We all gathered this morning expecting a really good flight of raptors as wind was blowing strong from the NW (or maybe even WNW) and cloud cover, although not perfect, was 100% and not really threatening with rain.  With the thoughts of a 'big day', we anticipated hawks to start flying overhead early, even songbirds - that didn't happen.  We stood and watched and eventually were excited to see our first birds of the day, a pair of Harriers.  We thought that it was all about to start - unfortunately, that didn't happen either.

The following is a bird-by-bird account of what did happen today...

Osprey
1 flying west
1 flying west

Bald Eagle
1 flying east - briefly landed in a tree on the east side of the park.

Northern Harrier
2 flying west
3 flying east
3 flying west
3 flying east
2 flying west
2 flying east
2 flying east
1 flying east
1 flying east
1 flying east
1 flying east
2 flying east
1 flying east
2 flying east
2 flying west

Sharp-shinned Hawk
2 flying east
3 flying east
1 flying east
3 flying east
2 flying east
1 flying west
2 flying east
1 flying west
1 flying east
1 flying east
1 flying east
1 flying west
1 flying east
1 flying east
1 flying west and then back east again

Merlin
1 flying east
1 flying west

Peregrine Falcon
1 flying west

I'll be watching for all the birds that flew east today early tomorrow morning although it'll be impossible to tell if they're the same birds.  LOL!

So this is what we ended up with...

Today:
Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 2
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 6

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Osprey - 50
Bald Eagle - 18
Northern Harrier - 35
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 566
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Northern Goshawk - 0
Red-shouldered Hawk - 0
Broad-winged Hawk - 87
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
Rough-legged Hawk - 0
Golden Eagle - 0
American Kestrel - 190
Merlin - 32
Peregrine Falcon - 8
Total - 1005

a passing Northern Harrier (Kevin)

juvenile Bald Eagle (Elias)

and same eagle (Mike)

Birds:
Common Loon - 15 flying south over the park and out over the lake
Great Blue Heron - 7 flying east over the lake
Red-tailed Hawk - local, flying east
Shorebird (unknown species) - yet another!, flying out over the lake

Butterflies:
Monarch - 12 trying their best to fly westward

Mammals:
Nothing of note

Hawk Watchers:
Phil, Betty, Mike, Mark, Allison, Dave, Pat & Nancy, Elias, Carol, Ron & Jean, Bruce, Kevin, Arvo, Berle, Bruce & Ann, Lee, Cori, and a few others.  Thankyou everyone for your help watching in both directions today!

Weather Prediction:
Sep 14th - mainly sunny, W 20km/h and gusting (theweathernetwork.com)

See you,
Walter