Nov 12th - 161 Birds, 10 Species, Both Eagles!

Wow, still lots o' birds flying!  It was another lovely sunny day with cold wind blowin' down from the north and a bonus element of a snow covering the ground.  The reason that the snow was a bonus was because when Peter arrived at 10:15am he found no one else there and the birds were already up and flying.  This is how Peter used the snow to his advantage...

Peter and his hawk count white board. (Allison)

(Walter)

Migration was consistant up until roughly 1:30pm, then the birds slowed somewhat, then they pretty much stopped completely except for a couple of Turkey Vultures.  We hung in until 3:30pm just to make sure that was it for the day.  In all, another amazing late fall day of hawk watching.  The combination of the sun's position in the sky now and the sunshine reflecting back up off the snow made for some incredible views as the birds circled and soared over the park.  Hopefully there are still a few more days like this ahead of us.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 5
Bald Eagle - 1
Northern Harrier - 14
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 5
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 15
Red-tailed Hawk - 113
Rough-legged Hawk - 1
Golden Eagle - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Unidentified Buteo - 3
Total - 161

Eagle Time (EST):
10:35am - BE
11:15am - GE

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 2450
Osprey - 37
Bald Eagle - 82
Northern Harrier - 116
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 640
Cooper's Hawk - 15
Northern Goshawk - 3
Red-shouldered Hawk - 32
Broad-winged Hawk - 70
Red-tailed Hawk - 501
Rough-legged Hawk - 7
Golden Eagle - 5
American Kestrel - 197
Merlin - 19
Peregrine Falcon - 22
Unidentified Accipiter - 0
Unidentified Buteo - 34
Unidentified Eagle - 3
Unidentified Falcon - 6
Unidentified Raptor - 8
Total - 4247

a distant Golden Eagle (Allison)

Other Birds of Note:
Trumpeter Swan (5), Eastern Meadowlark (1), Great Blue Heron (2), Rusty Blackbird (1) and an Eastern Phoebe (1).

Trumpeter Swan family (Allison)

Hawkwatchers:
Peter, Walter, Dave, Joe, Allison, Jim, Jennifer, Winston, Naish, Betty, Trudy and Theresa.  Thankyou everyone for all your help today.  Hope you're all toasty-warm by now.

Weather Prediction:
Northwest wind to start the day but quickly swinging around to the south.  I'll only go as far as the backyard tomorrow morning for my hawk watching.

See you all again soon,
Walter