Saturday, September 28, 2013

Raptor and non-raptor count summaries September 22nd-28th


Raptors

Well, with an entire week of south and east winds, the migration has been kinda slow! But the Sharpies keep plugging away, trying desperately to build up some respectable numbers- with only 5741 for the season, something big will have to happen soon for us to see anything even close to average (the average by now "should" be nearly twice what we’ve seen so far). Interestingly, Peregrines seem to like this weather, with 32 seen this week, including a great flight of 15 on September 26th when a strong east wind was blowing in off the lake. Although a few juveniles have been seen, most Peregrines continue to be adults. Hopefully this strong movement of Peregrines will continue!

Non-raptors

This was also a relatively slow week for non-raptors, with only about 9,000 total seen for the week (at a time when days of over 10,000 are not unusual). American Goldfinches put on a good showing this week, with about 2400 seen, including 733 on September 24th, which is one of the higher counts I have seen. The warm weather has given Blue Jays and Cedar Waxwings a chance to still move by in the hundreds, though I am sure their time is just about up, since by October these two species usually change over to American Crows and American Robins. We haven't had a hard freeze yet, so lots of birds are hopefully waiting to move when the weather finally gets cold again.

Karl Bardon
Count Director

Well, I may not have much to report for bird numbers this week, but at least I can show some of the better photos I have taken this week.

Palm Warbler in the perch tree by the counting platform at Hawk Ridge

juvenile Bald Eagle carrying some veggies over Hawk Ridge

What are you looking at? Downy Woodpecker checking us out!

Adult Peregrine Falcon

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