On Sunday in between the rain, Bill Haley went up, early for about half an hour, and later for about an hour. Hoping that between the rains, something would be sliding by. But, alas, nothing was prepared to battle the front. So Bill was able to take a shot or two of the road-side by our parking, where every year the wild flowers make a dramatic show.
BUT AFTER THE FRONT!!!!!!!
In the earliest hour, Jimmy said that we decided to count the clouds, while waiting on Hawks, and there was 1. And it covered the whole sky. Actually, it was a rising fog over the whole valley and hill. Nothing was flying until 10:16, but then it almost never stopped. In fact we stayed until almost 6:30, because the hawks never stopped until 6:04. The Highlight of the day may have been the Merlin that gave us a wonderful show.
Bill Haley, Roi and Debbie Shannon, and Jimmy and I seldom had a break through-out the day, as hawks streamed through mostly in singles or small groups. There were wonderful clouds most of the day, over most of the skies. I should say that both Bill and Jimmy ran out of space on the page they allowed for listing BW's. For a Total of 275 for the day.
Only once did we have a sizable kettle, which first appeared as the tiniest specks, too small to determine how many were there. We feared they would rise into the fog and clouds, never to be seen again, but they turned to come toward us, and as they neared spread out, in the most difficult way, so as to make them equally difficult to count as they approached. Some went on, some stayed behind, some spread out, some circled in wide swoops. But we finally decided we had 69 at about 2:53.
They often streamed through at extreme heights, so clouds were our salvation today. That and extra eyes. Roi and Debbie were always with us in the early years, and came occasionally as they were able over the years. We have spent many hours laughing both on the watch and with them at the Crane Festival and for many years. We have always called Debbie, Eagle eye, because she has always been able to pick out the tiniest specks. We probably doubled our count today because of them. Love them so much for being there this year when they can.
Pictures today are courtesy of Bill Haley:
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| A kettle of Turkey Vultures |
These are the Stats:
Monday, 9/19/2016
BW 275
BE 3
SS 10
CH 1
OS 2
AK 3
ML 1
PG 2
RS 2
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Tot. Raptors - 299
Bald Eagles were our Junk bird today...meaning we saw them often, but they were locals, not migrating, for the most part and we sort of began looking at them as Vultures with White heads and Tails. We finally sorted out 3, one of which was an immature bird, and counted them. Gorgeous to see, never-the-less.
We wanted to count the Falcon Trifecta....and we had a wonderful start when we began with the hardest of them, the Merlin. It was a miracle, almost, that we got on the Kestrals, one of which was a bright reddish female, but they all zipped through. And then came the Peregrins. A real treat to see all 3 today.
It was a day like we expected, although we wished to see more in kettles. Just more fun. But one thing was for certain. We had none of the sneaky birds dropping in from the east and almost getting by us. Due to the north and NW, NE winds all day, no variable, the migrants today moved through from a generally Northern direction and all moved toward the S and SW. From midday, Jimmy recorded visibility to by 35 increasing to 45K. Clear to the Kingston Steam Plant.
I can say we couldn't complain to have the real migration underway.
It is for certain that we have several more days that we expect to have reason to
KEEP LOOKING UP!!!!!
Stay tuned,
Jimmy and Cynthia
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