Count summary through September 12th, 2016

Hawk Ridge migration has been very busy the last week. We have now counted over 10,000 raptors and over 100,000 non-raptors for the season so far- but this is just the beginning! Peak numbers of both raptors and non-raptors are still to come. Some of the highlights from the last week are shown below with photographs I took this season.

Osprey in flight- we had a great two day run of 41 and 42 Ospreys on 8 and 9 September 2016

Juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk in flight. We had some high numbers of Sharpies at the Ridge recently including 1066 on 8 September and 1353 on 10 September. Peak Sharpie flights are usually a 1,000 ore more individuals, so its great to already have two such days this season, with many more Sharpies to come.

Although distant, this photo shows a leucistic Cliff Swallow which was seen during a large flight of  2603 Cliff Swallows on 25 August 2016

Here's a Black-and-white Warbler in flight. We are still getting a good variety of warblers, with over 7,000 individuals and 25 species counted this season. The main push of Yellow-rumps is still coming.

Flock of Cedar Waxwings in flight. The bulk of waxwings have probably already moved through. We have counted 28,866 migrating Cedar Waxwings including a peak of 6651 on 9 September 2016

Common Green Darner in flight. This has been an amazing season for dragonflies, with day after day of big flights, often thousands of individuals. Although green darners are usually the most common species, we often have many other species mixed in as well, and a very large flight estimated at 100,000 individuals on 30 August 2016 was surprisingly not mostly green darners, but meadowhawks and blue darners

My thanks to fellow counters Alex Lamoreaux, Steve Kolbe and Amy West, as well as the very helpful group of volunteers that come so often, including Stephen Nelson, Dave Carman, Jan and Larry Kraemer, Russ Edmonds, John Richardson, Karen Stubenvoll, Kathleen MacAuley, Tom Reed, and Peder Svingen

Karl Bardon

Count Director

Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory