Hawkwatch - Sunday-Tuesday November 25-29, 2018

The past few days have been filled with a mix of weather conditions. Earlier in the week we had southeast winds and rainy conditions. The more-recent past few days have been filled with strong winds out of the west and northwest. These winds can really funnel birds into the area. Today, November 29th, there were 178 birds tallied from the hawkwatch... a solid raptor count for a late November day. It will be interesting to see what raptors show up tomorrow.

Adult Bald Eagle flushing the ducks on Bunker Pond.

Juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk

Juvenile Black-headed Gull

Big flock of blackbirds! Most of them are Common Grackles.
Look closely for the Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Tomorrow is the last day of the 2018 Cape May Hawk Watch. Stop by and bring your binoculars for a fun time to enjoy the migration, natural beauty of the area, and to reminisce about the many fun times earlier in the fall. It would be great to see you tomorrow!

Good hawkwatching,
Erik Bruhnke

Seawatch - November 19-25, 2018

The past week had several good days with 10,000+ birds, consisting of a lot of Red-throated Loons and scoters!  Here's the weekly breakdown (including northbound birds):

November 19: 18,923
November 20: 15,627
November 21:   4,548
November 22:   3,517
November 23: 14,618
November 24: 10,071
November 25:   5,005

Rarities this week included a King Eider, a Black-legged Kittiwake, and a Pomarine Jaeger, as well as some Common Mergansers and two Canvasbacks, which are unusual past the Seawatch.  Also very interesting were a Common Redpoll north past the Seawatch on the 19th and an American Woodcock coming in off the ocean on the 22nd.  The 19th and 20th had big Red-throated Loons days, with 6400 and 8200 respectively.  The 23rd and 24th had over 5000 and 6000 scoters respectively. 

Check out the links above to see the exact totals!

Hawkwatch - Saturday, November 24, 2018

Blustery east winds kept many raptors at bay, both figuratively and literally. East winds slow down the rate of raptors approaching the southernmost tip of New Jersey, and keep them a little north of us where they attempt to cross the Delaware Bay. Several Red-tailed Hawks and Red-shouldered Hawks made an appearance, as did a greater number of Sharp-shinned Hawks. It was a slower day overall for migration. The hawkwatch ended up closing at 2:30pm today due to rain.

Tomorrow's forecast is sunny skies and northwest winds. These conditions are really good for migrating raptors to pass through the Cape May area. Hope to see you at the hawkwatch!

Today's sightings.

Good hawkwatching,

Erik Bruhnke

Hawkwatch - November 20-23, 2018

Recent northwest winds and a strong cold front have brought many raptors our way. Kettles of Red-shouldered Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks are continuing to push through. Solid Bald Eagle numbers are expanding our Bald Eagle season totals; the highest Bald Eagle count in the history of the Cape May Hawk Watch. Two Northern Goshawk made an appearance this morning; one of them perching within 50 feet of the hawkwatching platform! Bunker Pond almost froze over entirely last night. It's been a brisk and bird-filled past few days. 

Sunrise behind the hawkwatch platform, full moon on the horizon.

Sandhill Cranes.

Juvenile Northern Harrier.

Juvenile Northern Goshawk perched nearby!

Great Cormorant (upper left) and Double-crested Cormorant (bottom right).

Today's totals.

See you at the hawkwatch,

Erik Bruhnke

Seawatch - November 12-18, 2018

Sorry for the delay in getting out the blogs!  Here are the numbers for last week:

November 12: 31,943
November 13:   9,440
November 14:   6,750
November 15: 13,145
November 16:   6,518
November 17:   7,612
November 18: 16,016

Tom Reed had an excellent day on Monday the 12th, with over 1000 Green-winged Teal, over 10,000 scoters, over 4000 Red-throated Loons, and a good gull movement consisting of over 600 Laughing Gulls and over 1000 Ring-billed Gulls.  There was also an excellent diversity of ducks, with 21 species!  Tuesday the 13th was quite a bit slower for Tom, but was headlined by a Red-necked Grebe, a Razorbill, and even a Gray Seal!  The 2116 southbound Black Scoters made up the majority of Tuesday's flight.

Wednesday the 14th was even slower than the previous day, but was highlighted by a flock of 31 Tundra Swans, another Red-necked Grebe, a few late Black Skimmers and a late Osprey, and a close Common Goldeneye. The day was dominated, as most days this week were, by Red-throated Loons, with 1762 throughout the day. 

Thursday the 15th had strong easterly winds, which produced 3560 Surf Scoter and 4683 Black Scoter.  Not to be forgotten, 2073 Red-throated Loons were in the mix as well.  Also of note was a nice movement of over 300 scaup, 771 Green-winged Teal, and a Razorbill.

Friday the 16th was quite different, with only a few hundred loons and scoters each, but with a late push of 1770 Double-crested Cormorants and 1224 Laughing Gulls!  A late Brown Pelican was seen heading north toward Sea Isle and 10 Common Eider were seen going south.

Saturday the 17th was dominated by Red-throated Loons, with 3436 tallied.  Nearly 1000 Black Scoter and over 400 Surf Scoter were counted along with a smattering of gulls and ducks in small numbers.  A diverse but low number day overall.

Sunday the 18th had straight north winds and was quite cold in the morning (37 degrees), causing a good movement of scoters and loons.  5174 Black Scoter, 3175 Surf Scoter, and 38 White-winged Scoters kept the day very busy, while a solid 3648 Red-throated Loons made the day hectic at time!  It's often hard to keep track of everything when a wave of loons totaling upwards of 500 birds comes through all in a few minutes!  (Not to mention how tired my clicker hand gets!)  A big shoutout to Chris Payne, previous Montclair Hawkwatcher and fresh off a season at the Florida Keys Hawkwatch, for helping count scoters while I was busy with loons.

That's all for last week!  I encourage you to take a look at the individual numbers for each day, and stay tuned for this week's summary!

Good birding,
David Weber

Hawkwatch - Monday, November 19, 2018

Adult female Northern Harrier

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk keeping watch from the hawkwatching platform

Pied-billed Grebe

Today's totals

Hawkwatch - Sunday, November 18, 2018

Handsome male Eastern Bluebird.

A late-season Peregrine Falcon.

American Pipit.

Juvenile Cooper's Hawk carrying a American Goldfinch.

A late-season Broad-winged Hawk.

Today's totals.

Hawkwatch - Friday & Saturday, November 16 & 17, 2018

Adult Female Northern Harrier

This flock of Sandhill Cranes flew right over the hawkwatch!

Monarch

The second of three Northern Goshawk seen today.

Redhead

Adult Red-shouldered Hawk

Black-headed Gull walking around the parking lot on Friday morning!

American Pipit

Today's sightings from the hawkwatch.

Hawkwatch - Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, November 14, 15, 16, 2018

Howling east winds mixed with sleet and rain have put a damper on the day's migration. A few hardy raptors pushed through before the elements took hold.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was a thrilling late-fall day to scan the skies at the Cape May Hawk Watch. A steady stream of buteos moved throughout the entire day. An incredible movement of 15,683 American Robins and 5,404 American Goldfinches flooded the air with their presence. Within the first hour after daybreak a Common Redpoll and Lapland Longspur flew over the hawkwatch. Lines of Northern Gannets and Red-throated Loons streamed by over the Delaware Bay. Birds were all over the place. By the end of the day, 475 raptors were tallied from the hawkwatch.

Northern Goshawk are a late-season treat to witness in Cape May. Often times you have to put in the hours to see them, as they are very uncommon. This is the time of the fall when they can show up, especially after strong and forceful cold fronts move through.

Hooded Mergansers

Bald Eagle

Merlin carrying a Tree Swallow

Adult Red-shouldered Hawk (bottom left) and juvenile Red-tailed Hawk (upper right).
Two different buteo species. What differences do you see?

Adult Peregrine Falcon

One of the spectacular stars of the day... a Juvenile Northern Goshawk!

Wednesday's totals.

Tomorrow's forecast is blustery northwest winds and clearing skies. The heavy snowfall that took place well north of us could spark an interesting flow of migration in the days to come.

See you at the hawkwatch!
Erik Bruhnke

Morning Flight - Thursday, November 15, 2018 (the final day!)

There were still birds moving today on the final day of the count! 885 American Robins and 391 American Goldfinches made their way north past the count, with a fair number of other species present as well, albeit in small numbers. Raptors provided a classic backdrop to the flight as several Northern Harriers and a Merlin lifted off on developing thermals to join the Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures streaming towards in good numbers. A few sharpies, coops, Red-tails, and a lone kestrel joined the party shortly afterwards.

Although the scoter peak is behind us, the duck action still provided welcome company much the same way that shorebirds did back at the start of the season. 43 Hooded Mergansers, 12 Black Ducks, 7 Wood Ducks, 4 Greater Scaup and a Long-tailed Duck were the bonus waterfowl highlights.

After this surprising amount of activity for two hours, the count was ended by icy rain! We still had a northbound Blackpoll Warbler today, which I consider a fitting end to a stellar count season (at least in the latter half).

I would love to do a full-season report here, but I’ll have to save that for the “The Peregrine Observer,” CMBO’s annual publication. Members of the Cape May Bird Observatory get a copy of annual “The Peregrine Observer” included with membership, so if you appreciate the research, stewardship, and outreach work that CMBO does, please consider signing up to become a member! I promise it’ll be well worth it.

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the next season!

Morning Flight - Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Wow, what a great morning for the penultimate day of the count! Moderate NW winds and overcast skies characterized the scene from the dike this morning, and a quiet first fifteen minutes were soon met with a busy flight of American Robins and American Goldfinches. The robins started out strong as expected, but goldfinches weren’t waiting until the late morning to move in numbers and comprised a significant part of the flight early on. We finished with 12,800 American Robins for the morning, another solid flight for the season that puts us at 78,000 northbound individuals for the season!

Goldfinches, however, did not taper off and instead only increased in magnitude! I estimated that the average flock size coming by was 40, and there were a few 100+ ones too! Flocks came wave after wave over the impoundments and the far treeline, with a bonus line low along the leeward side of the dike. American Goldfinches have continually outdone themselves this season, and while they were not counted at the onset of the count, this is certainly an exceptional season: we finished with 13,996 northbound birds!

60 Pine Siskins and 38 Purple Finches accompanied the goldfinches, but House Finches were notably absent from the flight this morning. Yellow-rumped Warblers made a final push, as 518 of them went north past the dike. The bonus highlights of the morning were a flock of 21 Tundra Swans (a new species for the dike hotspot), and two Fox Sparrows, which are not annual for the count.

It’s strong ENE winds before day-long rain tomorrow, so there likely won’t be much happening for the final (!) day of the count tomorrow. Today is close enough to the end though that I’ll call it going out on a high note!

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the final day!

Seawatch - November 7-11, 2018

This past week was another great week, full of thousands and thousands of birds!  Several days consisted mostly of distant birds thanks to westerly winds, but Friday the 9th had strong east winds that allowed for lots of very close birds! 

Northbound + southbound totals:

Wednesday: 14,353
Thursday:    21,915
Friday:         22,143
Saturday:       9,267
Sunday:       10,266

Wednesday the 7th had a nice push of 2400+ Red-throated Loons and a nice 89 Bufflehead, but was otherwise dominated by many distant north and south bound scoter flocks, with a decent total of 4500+ southbound scoters.

Thursday the 8th had 12,000 southbound scoters thanks to more northly winds, a late push of 4440 Double-crested Cormorants, and over 1100 Laughing Gulls.  37 White-winged Scoters was a nice increase in White-winged numbers, as was 52 Long-tailed Ducks.

Friday the 9th had an excellent 22,000 birds thanks to strong 20mph east winds. 15,000 Black Scoter, 3300 Surf Scoter, and 42 White-winged Scoters were tallied, demonstrating how excellent of a flight there is in early November on east winds.  71 Greater Scaup, a few Redhead, and over 100 Green-winged Teal highlighted some of the diversity this day.  Our morning flight counter, Andrew Dreelin, stopped by (as it was his day off), and he took some phenomenal photos that really showcase the close proximity of the primary flight line.  CHECK IT OUT!

Saturday the 10th was much slower, with only around 3500 scoters, mostly very distant, but highlighted by 4 Tundra Swans, over 100 Bufflehead, and 1700 cormorants.

Sunday the 11th was busy in the morning and slow for the rest of the day, but the day was really carried by an excellent 588 Bufflehead, 143 Long-tailed Duck, 10 Horned Grebes, a Pied-billed Grebe, and two more Tundra Swans.  There was also an nice evening scoter flight during the last 1-2 hours of the day, dominated mostly by Surf Scoter.  Remember, the morning (and sometimes the last hour before sunset) is always the busiest, and coming out midday could make you think that the Seawatch doesn't have many birds!

Another week at the Seawatch, another 70,000 birds!  Make sure to get on out soon while we are still at our peak!  East winds or the morning after a cold snap should be very fruitful!

Morning Flight - Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Rained out! Here's hoping for some birds on tomorrow's overnight NW winds!

For now, data proofing.

Bring on the next day!

Morning Flight - Monday, November 12, 2018

There were a surprising number of birds continuing south past Higbee on today’s light east winds! 1,855 American Robins comprised the bulk of the songbird abundance, and moderate numbers of the regular finches were mixed in as well. Two northbound Dickcissels were great bonus birds for what I anticipated would be a tranquil morning.

Tomorrow may be a rain-out, but Wednesday could be good!

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the next day!

Morning Flight - Sunday, November 11, 2018

It was a steadily busy morning at Higbee today! 2,880 American Robins flew north along the far treeline while 503 goldfinches bounced across the breadth of the dike in flocks. Some Purple Finches (22), House Finches (12), and Pine Siskins (7) were mixed in, but not quite in the numbers hoped for. It will be interesting to see how birdy this late season count period will be in falls where October wasn’t laden with cold fronts.

Robins at sunrise. 

4 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 2 Rusty Blackbirds, 8 Eastern Bluebirds, and 6 Hooded Mergansers that flew down the bay were the diversity bonus of the morning. Tomorrow and Tuesday’s forecast looks grim, but Wednesday could be productive!

Rusty Blackbird across the Delaware Bay. 

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the next day!

Morning Flight - Saturday, November 10, 2018

The anticipated cold front arrived later than expected, rolling in during the count period today. Unlucky, but we had such good fortune in October that it’s impossible to complain at this point. Strong winds virtually shut down any songbird activity that would have been present, as only a few handfuls of robins, blackbirds Yellow-rumps, goldfinches, and siskins were seen headed north. I can at least empathize with them for not wanting to fly on those conditions, as the 30+ mph gusts of wind that pushed me around the dike all morning provided a good first-hand lesson in the wind drift that these migratory songbirds face. The major perk of the morning was watching the cold front physically roll in across the sky in a couple of hours, quite the beautiful sight. That’s just one of the many things I wouldn’t have noticed had birds not opened my eyes to so many wonders of the world.

Anyways, the second day of a front tends to be better for diversity at Morning Flight, since the winds are usually tamer and will have blown that direction all night whereas they might have started too late on the first night, as was the case here. That’s a long way of saying tomorrow should be the awaited day! Fingers crossed for something special!

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the next day!

Morning Flight - Friday, November 9, 2018

Interpretive naturalist Jerald Reb was called up to the big leagues this morning! It was my regular day off, and since Tom Reed will be filling in for Erik Bruhnke this weekend (who is away at a birding festival), Jerald got to fill in for TR at Morning Flight! Jerald has been a notable help on some of the big flight days and an NFC aficionado for some time now, so he was fully prepared for the challenge. -- Andrew

Here's Jerald's commentary from the morning:

Today was a fun, albeit sometimes chaotic late-season morning at the Dike. With strong winds shifting to the east right at sunrise, the potential for any large passerine movement was effectively shut down. The smaller flight that resulted was disorganized, with no clear flight lines, which made for a somewhat challenging count. The passerines struggling past the dike this morning were low in both diversity and numbers, with three species (American Goldfinch, American Robin and Red-winged Blackbird) making up about 80% of the flight.

Despite poor songbird movement, the raptor and waterbird flights were interesting. 13 Northern Harriers were a nice treat, as was a single Red-shouldered Hawk.

The bay was filled with Scoters, many either on the water or too far out to count. 8 Lesser Scaup were nice to see, tucked into the last Scoter flock before the end of the count period. Bonaparte’s Gulls were moving south en masse, with 121 tallied throughout the count. The largest single flock of Bonaparte’s contained 72 individuals.

The forecast for tomorrow is looking great, with northwest winds overnight and continuing all day. Here’s hoping some more winter finches make it down!

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the next day!

Morning Flight - Thursday, November 8, 2018

It was another fun morning at the dike on the second day of this front! Oddly, the sky was completely enveloped in clouds as I climbed up the dike this morning, but that did not stop the birds from moving. American Robins were up and at it in a somewhat chaotic flight-- throughout the morning there was a lower line of re-orienting birds headed north, and there were also high lines of southbound robins headed to the point and places beyond. By simply looking at the Trektellen totals, one might be tempted to think that there were ~4,500 robins that simply moved both directions, but all of this was happening simultaneously! The total number of American Robins for the morning was somewhere just over 9,300, and there were undoubtedly more sky-high flocks of robin-esque pepper flakes that I failed to find.

American Goldfinches were the other big mover of the morning, as 803 went north past the count, continuing a spectacular season for them. Purple Finches and House Finches were in moderate attendance (61 and 46 north, respectively), and there’s been somewhat of an uptick in Pine Siskin numbers (64 north), although plenty of them continue south. 24 Red-breasted Nuthatches were also good total for November, and 20 Golden-crowned and 3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and 2 Brown Creepers were nice additions as well.

Our late trickle of warblers continues, with 732 Yellow-rumps, 24 Blackpoll Warblers (pushing us over 3,800!), 6 Palm Warblers and a very late Chestnut-sided Warbler! A pair of northbound male Boat-tailed Grackles were the bonus highlight of the count .

Speaking of things seen at the HawkWatch, Tom Reed observed a stupendous southbound flight of American Robins, which he estimated at ~175,000 birds!! The vast majority of them continued south over the water towards Delaware, hence why we didn’t pick up on as much of the flight at Higbee. We’re reliant on northbound/re-orienting birds at the count (as it was designed to be), so if conditions had favored overnight drift more strongly, it could have been a much much better (and overwhelming) day for us. Although I certainly wish they had come by the dike, it’s cool enough to know what they chose to do this morning, which is one of the blessings of having many eyes and multiple points of coverage here. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Cape May is a complex system!

The forecast for this weekend is lining up quite nicely as a front is forecasted to arrive late Friday night and continue into early Monday morning. It’s bound to bring in more late season goodies, so if you wanted to experience some November weekend birding in Cape May, now’s the time!

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the next day!

Morning Flight - Wednesday, November 7, 2018

With light westerly switching to northwesterly winds overnight, we had an enjoyable November flight at Higbee this morning. 3,330 northbound American Robins were the most abundant mover of the morning, and while Hermit Thrushes were content to just call on the ground, Eastern Bluebirds picked up in notable numbers by the count’s standards. We had our peak movement of them for the season so far, with 69 northbound individuals, although there were likely more, since they are often quite high when flying over the dike and hearing them call is the best way to find them. A Dickcissel was the other best heard bird of the morning, as we haven't had one in awhile.

The Yellow-rump train seems to have finally run out of steam. Despite the westerly winds and good numbers of robins flying, we had “only” 166 northbound as opposed to a few thousand. Finches, however, continue to move in some numbers, as we had 100 Purple Finches, 43 American Goldfinches, 34 House Finches, and 40 Pine Siskins (all going north except for the siskins, which were mostly southbound). The end of the first week of week of November certainly has a different flavor to it. Still, there are birds moving, and I’ll be here to count them, at least for a bit more yet!

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the next day!

Seawatch - October 31-November 4, 2018

This past week had many highs and lows! First, let's start off with a list of our total birds for each day (both northbound and southbound):

October 31:    29,691
November 1:  16,986
November 2:  3,808
November 3:  2,787
November 4:  25,642

As you can see, we had three busy days and two slow days.  October 31st had an excellent movement of scoters, with 16,000 Black Scoters and 5,600 Surf Scoter.  2700 cormorants and 1700 gannets made things a bit hectic at times as I was trying to keep track of flocks of scoters, cormorant, a stream of gannets, and miscellaneous gulls and ducks all at the same time. 

November 1st was a quite a bit slower, but good sized flocks of cormorants really bumped up the total number for the day, with over 4000 counted. 8600 Black Scoters and 1700 Surf Scoters kept the pace up from the previous day.  31 Brown Pelicans was certainly a sight to see, and they were all adult birds, which was quite interesting.

Friday, November 2nd was dominated mostly by northbound scoters (over 2000 of them), with very little active migration of anything southbound.  However, a notable push of terns in the evening was definitely the most interested event of the day, with 146 Royal Terns and 224 Forster's Terns tallied that day.

November 3rd was even slower, and there is honestly not much to report!  A female Common Eider hung out off the jetty between 7th and 8th Street for the whole day with a large group of scoters, much to the delight of our visitors.  A somewhat late Osprey and another 142 Forster's Terns were also notable.

Sunday, November 4th picked up considerable again, but started off quite disappointingly with most birds being very far offshore.  However, the north winds swung around to east by noon, and the flight not only increased in intensity but was also considerably closer to shore, with many flocks of scoters often coming right over the jetty.  Nearly 12,000 Black Scoter and 5000 Surf Scoter were clicked throughout the day.  A good diversity of dabbling ducks and diving ducks, as well as a nice push of 457 Red-throated Loons really rounded out this very good day.

The Seawatch is at it's peak for scoters now, so make sure to come on out soon!  The loons and gannets have really started picking up as well and will probably peak in the next 3 weeks!

Good birding,
David

Morning Flight - Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Higbee was shrouded in fog this morning, and with the winds still out of the SE, there was little songbird movement at the count. 43 southbound Purple Finches, a late Caspian Tern, and a strong push of scoters including 3 White-winged Scoters through the fog were the highlights of the morning (now is a great time to be at the Avalon Seawatch!).

There will be a westerly component to the winds overnight tonight and tomorrow night (and more later in the 10-day forecast), so perhaps we’ll have some more late season activity!

As always, you can find our official count totals on Trektellen here, and our complete eBird checklist of the day’s observations here.

Bring on the next day!

Hawkwatch - November 3, 4, 5, 2018

Today is a rain day. Howling rains out of the east have put a damper on the day's potential raptor flights. Nearly 1,200 raptors have been seen migrating past the Cape May Hawk Watch over the weekend.

Yesterday we scored our first-of-the-season Northern Goshawk! This uncommon visitor is known for showing up towards the end of the season. They are a big treat to see here in Cape May. The busy flights of Sharp-shinned Hawks continue. We had many great comparison views of Red-tailed Hawks and Red-shouldered Hawks on Sunday.

As of Sunday we're currently holding Cape May's record season count of Bald Eagles, and we still have over three more weeks of hawkcounting to go!

Gray Ghost - Adult Male Northern Harrier. He knows he is handsome!

Merlin

Juvenile Bald Eagle

Turkey Vulture

Osprey migrating under the morning flight.

Juvenile Peregrine Falcon carrying a Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Adult Red-shouldered Hawk

Juvenile Peregrine Falcon

Backside of the first Northern Goshawk of the season.
The large-winged and heavy-bellied profile is a good feature to look for this species.
Also note the pale "tawny" bar that runs along the mid-wing.
Among accipiters, this is a unique feature of Northern Goshawk.

Northern Goshawk #1 flying away. Note the Heavy-bellied profile and heavily streaked undersides.
Unlike Sharp-shinned Hawks and Cooper's Hawks, the Northern Goshawk has streaked undertail coverts.

Northern Goshawk #2. Note the heavy/thick wings, barrel-chested profile, and white supercilium (eyebrow stripe).

Sunday's totals.

Good hawkwatching,
Erik Bruhnke