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.
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| Palm Warbler in the perch tree by the counting platform at Hawk Ridge |
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| juvenile Bald Eagle carrying some veggies over Hawk Ridge |
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| What are you looking at? Downy Woodpecker checking us out! |
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| Adult Peregrine Falcon |
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