Hawk Watch Thursday November 4, 2010

After 6 hours of scanning the rainy, misty sky and only counting a single Merlin, the rain became heavy enough that I felt less guilty about throwing in the towel a little early today. Hopefully tomorrow will produce more birds than today.

Cape May
Cape May Point, New Jersey, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 04, 2010
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Species            Day's Count    Month Total   Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture                0             85            261
Turkey Vulture               0            720           1810
Osprey                       0              8           4538
Bald Eagle                   0             27            436
Northern Harrier             0            284           1915
Sharp-shinned Hawk           0            866          18673
Cooper's Hawk                0            211           3896
Northern Goshawk             0              4              6
Red-shouldered Hawk          0            104            218
Broad-winged Hawk            0              5           1212
Red-tailed Hawk              0            651           1233
Rough-legged Hawk            0              0              0
Golden Eagle                 0             12             20
American Kestrel             0             24           5585
Merlin                       1             23           2196
Peregrine Falcon             0              9           1378
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:                       1           3033          43378
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Observation start time: 06:30:00 
Observation end   time: 12:30:00 
Total observation time: 6 hours

Official Counter:        Melissa Roach

Observers:        

Weather:
Rain throughout the entire day (strong at times) with Eastnortheast winds
becoming Southeast by the afternoon.

Raptor Observations:
It was almost a shut-out today with the persistent rain, but we managed to
pull out 1 Merlin.

Non-raptor Observations:
2 Bonaparte's Gulls, a number of Red-throated Loons, 1 Tundra Swan

Predictions:
Tomorrow should be a better day with WNW winds for the majority of the day
and only a chance of rain for the first part of the day.