Hawk Watch Wednesday November 24, 2010

Today's weather was drastically different from the past two days. Instead of warm temperatures and South winds, we had cold and brisk Northwest winds. Not exactly the most pleasant conditions to be standing on a raised platform by the ocean. Thankfully, however, we had birds today!

The raptor movement was quite good for late November with good numbers of Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks (even 2 Broad-winged Hawks), but vultures (mostly Turkey Vultures) vastly outnumbered the other migrants. We added another 2 Northern Goshawks to our season total, and had another pair of Peregrine Falcons bickering with each other as they came in off the water.

But let's not forget the impressive Cave Swallow show! I can't say how many Cave Swallows were actually on the point today, but I know it was a good amount. Not only were they the most dominant swallow species by far, you literally couldn't scan the sky without finding at least one Cave. It was absolutely spectacular. At one point, there were 22 in one scan! It was a veritable Cave Swallowpalooza!!!

Cape May
Cape May Point, New Jersey, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 24, 2010
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Species            Day's Count    Month Total   Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture               27            293            469
Turkey Vulture             154           1379           2469
Osprey                       1             43           4573
Bald Eagle                   6             86            495
Northern Harrier             6            734           2365
Sharp-shinned Hawk          34           2040          19847
Cooper's Hawk                8            392           4077
Northern Goshawk             2             22             24
Red-shouldered Hawk         28            300            414
Broad-winged Hawk            2             18           1225
Red-tailed Hawk             70           1142           1724
Rough-legged Hawk            0              0              0
Golden Eagle                 0             19             27
American Kestrel             2             89           5650
Merlin                       0             73           2246
Peregrine Falcon             2             42           1411
Unknown Accipiter            0              0              0
Unknown Buteo                0              0              0
Unknown Falcon               0              1              2
Unknown Eagle                0              0              0
Unknown Raptor               0              0              0

Total:                     342           6673          47018
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Observation start time: 06:45:00 
Observation end   time: 15:30:00 
Total observation time: 8.75 hours

Official Counter:        Melissa Roach

Observers:        

Weather:
Moderate (sometimes strong gusts) NW to N winds the entire day with mostly
clear skies.

Raptor Observations:
Good movement for late November with lots of vultures (mostly Turkey) and
Red-tailed Hawks.  We also had 2 each of Northern Goshawk, American
Kestrel, and Peregrine Falcon.

Non-raptor Observations:
Northern Gannets, ~140 Snow Geese flying very high, lots of Cave Swallow
sightings (the dominant swallow by far)

Predictions:
Light NNE winds becoming East by noon with showers developing sometime in
the late morning.  The bad weather will probably put a stop to migration.