Finally a decent number of Broad-winged Hawks today! I won't keep you in suspense and will list hawk totals by hour.
10:00 - BW 3, ML 1
11:00 - BW 8
12:00 - NH 1, BW 3
1:00 - SS 1, BW 29
2:00 - 0
3:00 - BW 524
4:00 - OS 1
5:00 - BE 1 (ad.)
TOTAL: NH 1, OS 1, BE 1, SS 1, BW 567, ML 1.
572 Total raptors.
Note the 3:00 hour total compared to the rest of the day. Such is the nature of BW migration. Just when we were thinking we'd missed big numbers today, I spotted a kettle of 200 and it kicked off an exciting 25 minutes from 3:25 - 3:50. Kettles of 200, 145, 65, 30 and 67, with a few singletons thrown in for good measure gave us our best Broad-wing numbers so far, with a day total of 567 BW. I should add that all the 3:00 hour kettles were very distant SPECKS.
A Merlin this morning was exciting, but a surprise migrant 30 minutes later was much more unexpected. Jim spotted a bird flapping in a somewhat erratic manner and I noted it had very pointed wings. We thought at first it might be a falcon, but I've never seen one flap like this one. It proved to be a Common Nighthawk - heading SW at 11:07. Not something you see every day! I think it is only the 3rd one we've seen in 25 years on the lookout.
Weather stats:
Temperature: 65 F @ 8:00, increasing to 88 F at 5:00.
Wind: Light and variable, starting from NE and gradually shifting to SW by 3:00.
Clouds: Clear @ 8:00, 15% @ 11:00, 5% @ 12:00, 20% @ 1:00, 25% @ 2:00, 45% @ 3:00, 55% @ 4:00, 35% @ 5:00.
Barometric pressure: 30.05, dropping to 30.01.
Humidity: 81%, gradually dropping to 46%.
Counters:
Jim Rowell 8:00-5:00
Bill Haley 9:30-5:300
Harold Birch 11:00-5:00
Reporting: Bill Haley
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Yay counters!
That humidity was a killer today. I'll bet they were thankful for any clouds in the 3 o'clock hour.
Thankfully, they didn't become discouraged and were able to
KEEP LOOKING UP!!!!
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