September 22nd - Another Gorgeous Day!

Thankyou to everyone who participated in today's count. What a gorgeous day to be at the park! I wished that I could've joined you.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 7
Osprey - 3
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 50
Cooper's Hawk - 4
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 14
Merlin - 1
Total - 81

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 52
Osprey - 63
Bald Eagle - 27
Northern Harrier - 70
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 913
Cooper's Hawk - 19
Northern Goshawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 742
Red-tailed Hawk - 11
American Kestrel - 246
Merlin - 47
Peregrine Falcon - 7
Total - 2199

Osprey

Merlin

Merlin

Sharp-shinned Hawk

During the morning more than 5000 Blue Jays flew by.

Monarchs were also on the move.

Today's group included: Bruce, BIGFRANK, Berle, Carol, Ann, Cori, Bill, Ron, Betty, Norm, Bruce 2, Sue, and Terry 2.

Walter

September 21st - Silhouette Day!

With today's fog and overcast skies, it was a real challenge trying to ID some of the birds. A few of the Sharpies magically morphed in to Kestrel as they flew overhead. Many of today's birds flew above us or just out over the bluffs and many were gliding a little further as well indicating that they were flying on air rising up from the bluffs. This happens with any winds from the south or southwest.

Just when I think it's over:
As I finished packing everything up and was ready to leave I looked up one more time only to see a Sharp-shin fly through, then a Kestrel...so back to the fence I went. Within a minute of standing there an Osprey appeared over the trees, then another Sharp-shin. That was the last bird I saw before the rain moved in.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 54
American Kestrel - 11
Merlin - 3
Total - 73

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 45
Osprey - 60
Bald Eagle - 27
Northern Harrier - 69
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 863
Cooper's Hawk - 15
Northern Goshawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 742
Red-tailed Hawk - 10
American Kestrel - 232
Merlin - 46
Peregrine Falcon - 7
Total - 2118

American Kestrel

Our watchers and visitors today included: Ann, Theresa, Carol, Rodger, Jane, Betty, Terry 2, and Murray.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will more than likely not be at the park at all so if you go and you do see any raptors, please let me know as soon as you can.

Walter

Septermber 20th - A Much Better Day

Some amazing views of the birds today as they flew by. Our 2 local Red-tails decided to join us and sat in the trees on the west side of the park for a few minutes providing excellent views, especially for Maretha who was visiting us all the way from South Africa.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 13
Bald Eagle - 1 (juvenile 12:15)
Northern Harrier - 6
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 45
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 8
Merlin - 2
Total - 77

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 44
Osprey - 58
Bald Eagle - 27
Northern Harrier - 67
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 809
Cooper's Hawk - 15
Northern Goshawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 742
Red-tailed Hawk - 10
American Kestrel - 221
Merlin - 43
Peregrine Falcon - 7
Total - 2045

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Turkey Vulture

Our local Red-tailed Hawks

Maretha and I talking about African raptors.

Our unknown gull from last Sunday afternoon was nothing more than a Ring-billed Gull that had some sort of staining on it's breast. Probably something that it sat down in like motor oil in a parking lot.

Lots of people on hand today including: Dave, Peter, Ann, Bob, Betty, Terry 2, Berle, Carol, Theresa, BIGFRANK, Bruce, Effi, 'Bobobird', and Maretha.

Walter

September 19th - A Short Day Today

Not too much happening today with southeast wind blowing in the morning and rain during the afternoon. Our biggest excitement came while we were watching a local Red-tailed Hawk dive out of the sky from the east side of the park and attempt to remove a squirrel off the trunk of the big maple tree just behind us. With wings up and talons down, it came through the 'gap' and right along the top of the bluffs passing by us at near full speed less than 5 feet away. Luckily for the squirrel the hawk pulled out at the last moment. It's never a dull day at the Raptor Watch!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 9

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 31
Osprey - 58
Bald Eagle - 26
Northern Harrier - 61
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 764
Cooper's Hawk - 14
Northern Goshawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 742
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 213
Merlin - 41
Peregrine Falcon - 7
Total - 1968

Blue Jays were migrating through in better numbers today.

Today's gang was: Lee, Pat, Nancy, Terry 2, BIGFRANK, Carol, Rodger, Jane, Betty, and we welcomed Brenda to our Watch.

Walter

September 18th - Only 9 Birds Today

Today we had a bunch of great friends on hand to watch the raptors fly by but unfortunately the birds didn't really care. The bird of the day was a juvenile Bald Eagle that almost got by us down low on the lake. A big thanks to Bruce for spotting it! The falcon that was in question today turned out to be a Merlin and not a Peregrine as I had originally thought. Thanks everyone for your input and Effi for the photo!

Today:
Bald Eagle - 1 (juvenile 9:50)
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 3
Merlin - 4
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 9

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 27
Osprey - 58
Bald Eagle - 26
Northern Harrier - 61
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 761
Cooper's Hawk - 14
Northern Goshawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 742
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 213
Merlin - 41
Peregrine Falcon - 5
Total - 1959

Not much in the way of non-raptor species flying today, the highlight was an unusual looking gull that flew over us several times. Photos of it have been sent to our 'Gull Experts' for identification purposes. A Black Swallowtail butterfly was seen along the top edge of the bluffs.

Today we had several watchers at the ready including: Bruce, Mike 2, Norm, Lee, Mike, Leslie, Harvey, Laura, Theresa, Effi, and Peter.

Walter

September 17th - Rather Slow Today

With light winds coming from all the wrong directions today, very few birds were seen in the sky over Rosetta McClain Gardens. Cloud cover was very good so I doubt that we missed any birds that were flying high up.

Today:
Northern Harrier - 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 10
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 2
Total - 15

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 27
Osprey - 58
Bald Eagle - 25
Northern Harrier - 61
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 758
Cooper's Hawk - 14
Northern Goshawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 742
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 213
Merlin - 37
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 1950

Monarch flight was a little higher up in the air today and many of the butterflies were misidentified by all as birds at first sight.

Today's crowd included: Lorne, Mike 2, Lee, Betty, Theresa, Norm, Ivor, Allison, and Carol. Thankyou all for hanging in as long as you did today!

September 16th - Broad-wings and More Broad-wings!

Wow, what a day! Between 12:00 PM and 4:15 PM we saw several large kettles of Broad-winged Hawks circling in the air over the north end of the park. Many of the birds were distant and not seen by all watchers unfortunately. One kettle had 150 birds in it, what a beautiful sight! Our previous record was 225 Broad-winged Hawks for the entire season, today we saw a total of 605. Our season total now stands at 741 BWs and counting!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 11
Osprey - 4
Bald Eagle - 3 (adult 3:30, juvenile 3:40 x2)
Northern Harrier - 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 43
Northern Goshawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 605
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
American Kestrel - 13
Merlin - 1
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 691

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 27
Osprey - 58
Bald Eagle - 25
Northern Harrier - 59
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 748
Cooper's Hawk - 14
Northern Goshawk - 2
Broad-winged Hawk - 741
Red-tailed Hawk - 9
American Kestrel - 211
Merlin - 37
Peregrine Falcon - 4
Total - 1935

Mike Dizonno (Mike 3) was kind enough to share the following raptor photos with us:

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Northern Harrier

Turkery Vulture

Northern Goshawk

Red-tailed Hawk

The park was fairly quiet today for non-raptor species. A few more Blue Jays were observed flying over the park this morning and Monarch butterflies continue their migration south.

Our peanut-eatin' pal.

An excellent shot of our Watch site.

Watchers today included: Terry 2, Norm, Pat, Richard, Mike 3, BIGFRANK, Betty, Bruce, Cori, Hugh, and we welcomed newbies Allison, and Sherry. Thanks again everyone for your help.

Walter

September 15th - The Broad-winged Hawks Have Arrived!

What an amazing day at the park, I'm going to let the numbers speak for themselves.

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Osprey - 7
Bald Eagle - 2 (juvenile 12:35, 1:45)
Northern Harrier - 11
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 155
Cooper's Hawk - 3
Broad-winged Hawk - 116
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 80
Merlin - 6
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 383

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 16
Osprey - 54
Bald Eagle - 22
Northern Harrier - 52
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 705
Cooper's Hawk - 14
Northern Goshawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 136
Red-tailed Hawk - 7
American Kestrel - 198
Merlin - 36
Peregrine Falcon - 3
Total - 1244

Bald Eagle

Sharp-shinned Hawks

Broad-winged Hawk

We also saw a Brown Thrasher, Swainson's Thrush, and Common Nighthawk. Blue Jay migration appears to be underway with a number of small flocks seen moving over the north end of the park.

A very beautiful Blue Jay

A very comfortable Carol

People on hand today included: Peter, Terry 2, Dave, Betty, Carol, Berle, BIGFRANK, Pat, Nancy, Lee, Theresa, Bill, Norm, Murray, Hugh, and Bruce.

Walter

September 14th - A Good Day Today, 90 Birds

Another magnificent day for raptor watching today. A few clouds would have helped us even more though. At one point, Frank looked up at a Cormorant with his binoculars and then noticed an Osprey flying along just above the Cormorant - no one else saw his Osprey as it blended in to the blue sky. I wonder if we missed anything else up high today.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 5
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 65
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 11
Merlin - 5
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 90

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 15
Osprey - 47
Bald Eagle - 20
Northern Harrier - 41
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 550
Cooper's Hawk - 11
Northern Goshawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 20
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
American Kestrel - 118
Merlin - 30
Peregrine Falcon - 2
Total - 861

Today's best non-raptor sighting happened just along the fence in front of us when a brave young guy got down on one knee and proposed to his girl, lucky for him she said "yes!"

Lots of wonderful people on hand today including: BIGFRANK, Berle, Pat, Nancy, Rob, Diane (Frank's mom), Carol, Murray, Rodger & Jane from the UK, Cori, plus Ama & the gang. It was great that the kids (about 20 of them) were able to see many of the birds down low while at the park today. Hopefully you'll all be back again sometime soon.

THURSDAY IS THE DAY!!! Cancel all your plans and come down and see the birds. There should be lots of them!!!

Walter

September 13th - "There Are Slow Days...

...And then there's today!" (Terry 2)

I arrived at the park at 7:30 AM this morning not knowing exactly what to expect. There was good wind blowing, just not in quite the right direction. At 9:15 AM I had a flurry of 3 birds fly over the park. It was a looong time after that before the next bird came along!

Today:
Turkey Vulture - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 2
Total - 4

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 15
Osprey - 46
Bald Eagle - 20
Northern Harrier - 36
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 485
Cooper's Hawk - 10
Northern Goshawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 19
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
American Kestrel - 107
Merlin - 25
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 771

The park was very quiet again today as far as songbirds go. We also didn't see much in the way of Monarch migration either. With winds from the west most of the day the Monarchs might have actually been blown backwards a bit!

Today's watchers included: Carol, Terry 2, Betty, and Peter.

Better days ahead!

Walter

September 12th - The Return Of BIGFRANK!

Today we welcomed the return of our friend BIGFRANK to the Raptor Watch and before long he was back at it calling out the birds "There's a bird in the gap and another coming over the centre" - ah, music to my ears! Unfortunately today was not a great day for bird movement, it was hot, hazy with very little cloud cover. We did manage to find a total of 37 birds flying through including 2 more Osprey.

Today:
Osprey - 2
Northern Harrier - 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 24
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 7
Total - 37

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 14
Osprey - 46
Bald Eagle - 20
Northern Harrier - 36
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 484
Cooper's Hawk - 10
Northern Goshawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 19
Red-tailed Hawk - 6
American Kestrel - 105
Merlin - 25
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 767

Frank and I doing a load test to one of the park benches.


Red-tailed Hawk (local)


Cooper's Hawk (local)


Turkey Vulture (local)


On hand today were: Berle, Bob, Charles, Terry 2, Pat, Barb, Betty, Joe, and of course, BIGFRANK. Also, for those who know him, retired park worker Billy stopped by this afternoon to say hello to everybody.

Here's a photo of some of the group from today's Watch.


Walter

September 11th - Our First Goshawk!

Again today we had to do some deep sky searching to find many of the Sharpies but when an unexpected Northern Goshawk came flying along the edge of the bluffs our troubles were forgotten. What a surprise, the second earliest 'Gos' since the Watch was started back in 2004! Unfortunately things came to an end early in the afternoon when the winds shifted more to the south.

Today:
Osprey - 1
Northern Harrier - 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 34
Northern Goshawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 1
American Kestrel - 6
Merlin - 4
Total - 48

To Date:
Turkey Vulture - 14
Osprey - 44
Bald Eagle - 20
Northern Harrier - 33
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 460
Cooper's Hawk - 10
Northern Goshawk - 1
Broad-winged Hawk - 19
Red-tailed Hawk - 5
American Kestrel - 98
Merlin - 25
Peregrine Falcon - 1
Total - 730

Both Ann and Effi got amazing shots of the Goshawk today.

Northern Goshawk






Merlin


Also early this morning, an empty boat was found floating near Ashbridge's Bay and a woman was reported missing so a large scale search was already underway when I arrived at the park. A C-130 Hercules plane from Trenton Air Base was part of the search effort. At one point it made a very low pass over the Gardens.

C-130 Hercules


Other birds seen today included: a Black-throated Green Warbler, a Common Tern, and a Pileated Woodpecker. Pat Anderson sent along some photos and this great story about his attempt at photographing the majestic Pileated.



"...this bird really rocked me today as I followed him from tree to tree through the whole park, darting here and there, playing hide and seek behind limbs while eyeing me constantly. The bone-chilling calls he made only a few feet away, the quiet rustling of his wings as he passed only a couple of feet from me so close that I could not focus for a shot. I actually shivered when he whizzed past and landed on a tree trunk 6 feet away then made eye contact with me in a way I will never forget...too stunning to believe." Pat

Today's group consisted of: Lorne, Ann, Pat & Nancy, Norm & Jack and their wives (sorry I forgot their names...way too much coffee today!), Leslie & Mike, Gary & Diane, Lee, Carol, Peter, Kate & Denny, Cori, and today we welcomed Effi to the Watch. Thankyou everyone for another tough day of spotting the birds. Thank goodness we had some decent cloud cover to help us.

Here's a great shot of some who were at the Watch today.


Weather-wise, we may see some rain over the course of the next 2 days but Wednesday is looking very promising at the moment. I'll be at the park tomorrow as the rain is not supposed to arrive until 5 O'Clock. Southwest winds are predicted for tomorrow afternoon so we may see a few Osprey or Peregrines fly by.

Walter