Date: 1/12/25 2:57 pm From: Tom Kuehl <tjk.kuehl...> Subject: Westmoreland County WRS - Kuehl Crabtree Route - 30 Raptors including Merlin and Northern Harrier
Greg and All,
This is the 14th year for our Crabtree Westmoreland County Route (PSO #652). The route is located south of Rt. 22 and east of Rt. 66 and west of Chestnut Ridge - starts in Delmont, winds through the farmlands around Crabtree and extends east to the Indiana County border near Blairsville.
Low Total and Red-tailed Hawk numbers, however excellent variety today with 6 raptors species without sightings of any Turkey or Black Vultures. We tallied 30 Raptors today so quite a bit lower than the 13-year average of 39, and we recorded 23 Red-tailed Hawks; the high-count for this species was 54 in 2016 and the low was 14 in 2014.
County - Westmoreland
Route- Crabtree / PSO map number 652
Date - January 12, 2025
Obs.- Tom and Janet Kuehl, and Mark McConaughy
Survey time (subtract breaks) : Hours: 5 Minutes- 0
Start/End time: 10:00am / 3:20pm 20 minutes on 2 breaks
Miles on route: 78.9
Avg Temp.- 28F
Percent Cloud Cover - 95%
Wind - Calm/Light/Modest (cancel on strong) - Calm
Inches Snow cover- 6"
# Harriers (age/sex if poss.)- 1 Adult Male Average = .58
# Red-tails- 23 Average = 31
# Kestrels- 3 (#M= 2/ND=1) Average = 4.33
# Red-shoulders - 1 Adult Surprisingly, just the second one on this route
# Cooper's - 1 Adult Average = 1.5
# Merlin - 1 This is the 3rd Merlin for this route.
COMMENTS?
The Merlin was perched in a distant tree, so ID confirmed by photo and scope look.
A nice collection of good sightings including 4 Hooded Mergansers on Loyalhanna Creek, Eastern Bluebirds, Northern Mockingbirds, 15 Horned Larks, one Tree Sparrow, 3 White-crowned Sparrows and 6 Eastern Meadowlarks. Thanks to Mark for entering most of the observations in eBird to record species in blocks for the Third Pennsylvania Birding Atlas.
Tom Kuehl
Westmoreland County Compiler
Tom and Janet Kuehl
Southwest Regional Coordinators and Westmoreland County Coordinators
