Hawk Watch Saturday October 22, 2011

Cape May
Cape May Point, New Jersey, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 22, 2011
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Species            Day's Count    Month Total   Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture                0             29             44
Turkey Vulture               0            270            291
Osprey                       8           1191           2538
Bald Eagle                  11            203            328
Northern Harrier            21            345            516
Sharp-shinned Hawk         491           8779          12450
Cooper's Hawk               92           1850           2334
Northern Goshawk             0              0              0
Red-shouldered Hawk          8             38             47
Broad-winged Hawk            6            890            969
Red-tailed Hawk             23            111            154
Rough-legged Hawk            0              0              0
Golden Eagle                 0              2              2
American Kestrel            18           2810           5020
Merlin                      27            709           1467
Peregrine Falcon             5            497           1026
Unknown Accipiter            0              0              0
Unknown Buteo                0              0              0
Unknown Falcon               0              0              0
Unknown Eagle                0              0              0
Unknown Raptor               0              0              0
Swainson's Hawk              0              2              4

Total:                     710          17726          27190
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Observation start time: 06:00:00 
Observation end   time: 16:00:00 
Total observation time: 10 hours

Official Counter:        Melissa Roach

Observers:        

Weather:
Light (occasionaly moderate gusts) Northwest winds for much of the day
later becoming North-northwest after noon with basically zero cloud
coverage until the last hour of the count.

Raptor Observations:
An awesome movement of birds early on but with light winds and clear skies,
birds got really high really fast.  We did see the dark morph Swainson's
Hawk again in the late morning and suspect it might have actually moved on
now.

Non-raptor Observations:
500+ Chimney Swifts; 2 Eurasian Wigeon; 2 Cape May Warblers; 1 Pine
Warbler; 35 Blackpoll Warblers; lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Eastern
Meadowlarks, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Tree Swallows; 3 Cliff Swallows; 50
Northern Rough-winged Swallows; 34 Boat-tailed Grackles

Predictions:
Looks like it will be very similar to today's weather with light
Northwest/North-northwest winds and clear skies.  I would expect a good
movement of low raptors in the morning but by late morning, I would imagine
that birds will be very high in the sky again.
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Report submitted by Melissa Roach (roach.mc1@gmail.com)
Cape May Hawkwatch information may be found at:
http://www.njaudubon.org/Centers/CMBO/