A 350 Bird Kettle!

Wonder if our released BW's joined any of the kettles passing today?
Alix Parks shows our volunteer how to hold his bird to be released last Saturday.
Photo by Candy Haley

Here's Bill's report:

"Today featured Broad-wings that were NOT specks! Jim Rowell and I commented several times that it was a shame more people weren't there to witness it. Following is a list of hawks by the hour.

9 - 10: OS - 1

10-11: BW - 4

11-12: OS 1, BW - 3

12-1: IS - 1, BW - 80

1-2: 0

2-3: OS - 1, BW - 363

3-4: OS - 1, SS - 1, BW - 32

4-5: BW - 4

TOTAL RAPTORS: 

Osprey - 5

Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1

Broad - winged Hawk - 486

While today's BW numbers didn't quite match yesterday's,  it was a day of quality over quantity. All the large kettles yesterday were "pepper specks" - very distant. Not so today. 

We had some real nice views of several early low birds. Then at 12:36 a kettle of 46 was seen over Fred. (If you don't know Fred, ask about it the next time you are on the lookout.) All these birds were close enough to tell adults and Immatures. We got some really nice looks at this close-in kettle. These were followed by 12 more BW's four minutes later and another 20 a few minutes after that.

 At 2:43 came the AWESOME sight of the day. Jim was on a single Broad-wing, which I also found.  But then I looked below his bird and couldn't believe it. "Oh my gosh, Jim. Look below your bird!" A huge mass of hawks was kettled up, and a tornado of hawks extending almost all the way to the horizon was rising into it! And they WEREN'T SPECKS! Not as close as the first kettle, bur WAY closer than yesterday.  They rose into the sky in front of us and we were treated to a river of hawks, 10-15 hawks wide, as they sailed directly over our heads. 350 Broad-wings in this one kettle!

 

I always tell folks this is what keeps us coming back to the lookout day after day and year after year. We have learned what is possible, and we know the possible sometimes actually happens! You should have been there! What a sight!!!

By the way, we also saw 5 Osprey today, which was nice! One flew right through a kettle of Broad-wings.

Weather statistics:

Clear from 8 to 10, 5% clouds @ 11:00, 10% @ 12:00, 20%@ 1:00, 45% @ 2:00, 70% 3:00-5:00.

Wind: Calm @ 8:00, ENE 1-4 from 11:00-2:00,  N 1-5 @ 3:00, NNW 5-10 @ 4:00.

Temperature: 71 F, gradually increasing to 88 F by 3:00.

Visibility: 10K,  increasing to 40K by 2:00.

Barometric pressure: 30.11 from 8:00-12:00, then decreasing gradually to 30.05.

Humidity: 87%, decreasing gradually to 46%.

Counters:

Jim Rowell 8:00-5:00

Bill Haley 10:00-5:00

Reporting: Bill Haley"

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So glad Jim Rowell got to be a part of this count.  He's been sitting a lot of hours just to see such as this. If you want to see such a thing, you have to keep your eyes to the skies... You have to -

 

Keep Looking UP!!!