Hawk Watch Wednesday October 5, 2011

It was another bird-filled day at the Hawk Watch platform. Oodles of swallows, Northern Flickers, assorted passerines...oh yeah, and raptors! Unfortunately for visitors (and my sanity) most of the hawks were cruising by on the far treeline and blended in quite nicely with the vast array of aerial plankton (i.e. swallows, flickers, etc). The American Kestrel show wasn't nearly as impressive as yesterday, but we did have a very impressive late-fall Broad-winged Hawk flight today (impressive by Cape May standards at least since the coast doesn't get nearly the numbers that the ridge sites do).

All-in-all, it was an enjoyable day with lots of birds to look at. Hopefully these North winds will continue to bring in good numbers of migrants for us here at the point.

Cape May
Cape May Point, New Jersey, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 05, 2011
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Species            Day's Count    Month Total   Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture                0             10             25
Turkey Vulture              27             52             73
Osprey                      88            765           2112
Bald Eagle                  15             84            209
Northern Harrier            59            153            324
Sharp-shinned Hawk         980           3553           7224
Cooper's Hawk              214            665           1149
Northern Goshawk             0              0              0
Red-shouldered Hawk          0              7             16
Broad-winged Hawk          356            550            629
Red-tailed Hawk              3             13             56
Rough-legged Hawk            0              0              0
Golden Eagle                 0              0              0
American Kestrel           493           2292           4502
Merlin                      79            430           1188
Peregrine Falcon            15            145            674
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              1              3

Total:                    2329           8720          18184
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Observation start time: 05:00:00 
Observation end   time: 16:15:00 
Total observation time: 11.25 hours

Official Counter:        Melissa Roach

Observers:        

Weather:
Absolutely no cloud coverage today with moderate North-northwest winds
throughout. Even though we had clear blue skies, the wind was strong enough
to keep the flight line fairly low for the entire day.

Raptor Observations:
Another good movement of birds today but most birds were out pretty far
over the North treeline.  We had an impressive late Broad-winged flight
with birds streaming across the treeline for about 2.5 hours.  We also had
very good numbers of Sharp-shins, American Kestrels, and Cooper's Hawks
with decent numbers of Northern Harriers.

Non-raptor Observations:
1 Eastern Meadowlark, 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 1 GRAY KINGBIRD, 3
Golden-crowned Kinglets, lots of Northern Flickers, swallows, and
Red-winged Blackbirds.

Predictions:
The winds are predicted to be North-northeast for the first few hours of
the morning becoming Northwest by the afternoon.  I would expect a decent
flight of birds tomorrow and perhaps a few more Peregrine Falcons than
we've been seeing in the past couple of days.  
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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/