Hawk Watch Friday October 22, 2010

Um, wow! Today was absolutely incredible! There was SO much going on at the platform today (and anywhere else on the point from what I hear), especially in the morning. Migration was in full effect with literally thousands of birds moving including lots of sparrows, kinglets, robins, finches, swallows, and oh yea, raptors!

Starting off a little slow in the first hour, the hawks picked up to a nearly constant stream for the vast majority of the day (7 hours with very similar hourly totals). Sharp-shinned Hawks were by far the most numerous species for the day, but we also had a good showing of Northern Harriers (including multiple adult males), Bald Eagles, American Kestrels, and Merlins. And oh yea, we had another immature Golden Eagle! There were clearly 2 different Golden Eagles on the point today. Unfortunately, we only saw 1 (seen two seperate times) from the platform.

The platform was also graced with a wide assortment of non-raptor highlights which Tom has so graciously volunteered to blog about so check out his post to get a sense of how great today was!

Cape May
Cape May Point, New Jersey, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2010
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Species            Day's Count    Month Total   Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture                5             81            127
Turkey Vulture              64            554            752
Osprey                      17           1732           4473
Bald Eagle                  21            200            376
Northern Harrier            49            723           1194
Sharp-shinned Hawk         731           9612          14832
Cooper's Hawk               82           2396           3280
Northern Goshawk             0              1              1
Red-shouldered Hawk          2             53             58
Broad-winged Hawk           12            745           1198
Red-tailed Hawk             37            233            372
Rough-legged Hawk            0              0              0
Golden Eagle                 1              2              2
American Kestrel           234           2249           5048
Merlin                      62           1168           1989
Peregrine Falcon            15            953           1230
Unknown Accipiter            0              0              0
Unknown Buteo                0              0              0
Unknown Falcon               0              0              1
Unknown Eagle                0              0              0
Unknown Raptor               0              0              0

Total:                    1332          20702          34933
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Observation start time: 06:15:00 
Observation end   time: 16:00:00 
Total observation time: 9.75 hours

Official Counter:        Melissa Roach

Observers:        

Weather:
Strong to moderate WNW/NW winds the entire day with mostly clear skies (a
smidge of cloud cover).

Raptor Observations:
Very good movement of birds today with impressive numbers of Sharp-shinned
Hawks, Bald Eagles, Northern Harriers, American Kestrels, and Merlins.  We
also had a second Golden Eagle for the season (seen twice).

Non-raptor Observations:
Lots of passerine movement today!  We also had a season first Cave Swallow,
Hudsonian Godwit, Common Loon, Northern Gannets, scoter movement over land,
immature Little Blue Heron, and a Vesper Sparrow. 

Predictions:
Clear skies and moderate WSW winds turning to SW by the end of the day.