Sep 9th - 5 More Eagles!

I received the following numbers from Hugh for today...

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 6
Osprey - 1
Bald Eagle - 5
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 12
Cooper's Hawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 2
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
American Kestrel - 5
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 44

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 22
Osprey - 24
Bald Eagle - 30
Northern Harrier - 14
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 120
Cooper's Hawk - 12
Broad-winged Hawk - 13
Red-tailed Hawk - 22
American Kestrel - 40
Merlin - 10
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Total - 310

Eagle Time (DST):
09:45am - BE
10:09am - BE
11:30am - BE
02:30pm - BEx2

 It's our friend from yesterday, a Broad-winged Hawk (Lee)

 Bald Eagle (Lee)

a lovely sub-adult Bald Eagle (Lee)

Bald Eagle (Lee)

the very beautifully marked American Kestrel (Lee)

Red-tailed Hawk (Paul)

Other Birds:
Turkey Vulture, Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, and Merlin (all local birds), and Common Loon

Hawkwatchers:
Bruce Lee, Mike, Noam, Paul, Norm, Berle, Betty, Peter, Allyn, Sheldon, Ron, Dave, Andrew, Joe, Jennifer, Arvo, and Hugh

Ron Pittaway sent along this interesting article that Jean Iron wrote about the corelation of American Kestrels and their food source; Green Darner dragonflies during fall migration...

Kestrels and Green Darners

Walter

Sep 8th - Finally!!!

Finally a good day of raptor movement over Rosetta!  Unfortunately most of the birds were high up and not always easy to spot naked eye.  Forecasters had predicted a NW wind day but given the flight level today, I would say that it was more likely NNW.  A higher element of N in the direction causes the higher flight.  Anyway, it was a great day with a lot of wonderful help spotting and identifying raptors.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 6
Osprey - 9
Bald Eagle - 10
Northern Harrier - 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 89
Cooper's Hawk - 6
Broad-winged Hawk - 5
Red-tailed Hawk - 4
American Kestrel - 26
Merlin - 1
Total - 161

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 16
Osprey - 23
Bald Eagle - 25
Northern Harrier - 12
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 108
Cooper's Hawk - 10
Broad-winged Hawk - 11
Red-tailed Hawk - 16
American Kestrel - 35
Merlin - 10
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 267

Eagle Time (DST):
09:51am - BE
10:10am - BE
10:20am - BE
10:43am - BE
11:40am - BE
03:08pm - BEx2
04:12pm - BEx2
04:16pm - BE

 Osprey (Lee)

 a late day pair of eagles (Lee)

 a rare 'Swallowtail' Broad-winged Hawk (Lee)

(actually it's a normal Broad-wing that's lost a few tail feathers)

our only adult Bald Eagle of the day (Lee)

Other Birds:
Common Loon, Common Nighthawk, Great Blue Heron, Merlin (local), Red-tailed Hawk (local), Turkey Vulture (local)

Common Nighthawk (Patty)

Red-tailed Hawk (Walter)

Great Blue Heron (Lee)

Turkey Vulture (Lee)

the local Merlin out catching and eating lunch - dragonflies (Lee)

Hawkwatchers:
Mark, Lee, Sheldon, Rosemary, Phil, Allison, Hugh, Chris, Patty, Ron, Bruce, plus many others.  A big thankyou to everyone for such an amazing day at the Watch!

Weather Prediction:
Saturday's forecast calls for much the same conditions as today only the wind direction appears to be straight down from the north.  Watch for birds flying up high!

See you again soon,
Walter

September 7-2017

Hi everyone,

Hugh and Berle were at the park yesterday and saw the following:

Turkey vultures -  8

Sharp-shinned hawk  - 2

Merlin  - 2

Cooper's hawk  - 1

From 10..00 AM till 2 PM

Also Cape May / Wilson and Black throated Green warblers 

The turkey vultures were not the locals, they were high up and moving.  The usual 8 turkey vultures continued to hang around.

North wind alert:  Friday (today), NW winds all day, tomorrow, North winds.  You know what to do!

Lee

September 6-2017

Hi everyone,

Yesterday was a beautiful day at the park, with a handful of migrating raptors.  Theresa, Allison and I saw a distant, climbing Osprey to start the day and later, Berle and John saw 4 sharp-shinned hawks. 

Theresa writes:  Allison and I also found 4 Magnolias, a Tennessee, Black and White, Yellow rump and she had an Ovenbird. She also took a picture of what looks like a female or young male Scarlet Tanager.

The numbers: 

Osprey - 1
Sharp-shinned - 4

Lee

Sep 5th - 6 birds

Berle reported the following birds that she saw on Tuesday morning while at the Hawk Watch...

Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1


During the afternoon there was an unidentified Falcon that flew over the fountain area.  My first thought was that it was a Peregrine but on further study it was more likely a Kestrel.  The long tail and lack of pure muscle made me think Kestrel.  Because binoculars were never used to study the bird closely, I'd go with the following...

Unidentified Falcon - 1

See you again soon,
Walter

September 4-2017, quiet days

Hi everyone,

We have had very little Raptor activity since the 1st as the winds are all wrong, outside of the resident turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks.  Theresa sent along the following:

No raptors but:

Black-throated Blue
Black-throated Green
Cape May
American Redstart
Wilson's
Great Blue Heron
Red-eyed Vireo
1 Chimney Swift
2 Bank Swallows
Lots of Cedar Waxwings





Trudy saw a peregrine falcon so that was it for the birds of prey.

Lee