I wanted to take a moment and welcome the State College Bird Club members
to Tussey Mountain. I realize if you have never been to a hawk watch before
you may feel as if you are interfering with the count by coming over and
saying hello. Or it may seem intimidating with all the scopes and camera
gear on site. Since this site doesn't really experience a high volume of
migrating raptors like some sites do, it isn't a big deal to come over and
talk with myself, Adam Bradley or some of the other expert spotters who may
be up the day you are visiting. Our goal is to help you spot some migrating
raptors while you are up. It can be hard to do so if you're standing a ways
back as the perspective changes. Either way, definitely come say hello and
realize we are a very welcoming bunch. We really enjoy visitors. Another
way to contribute to the count is to help spot birds. The more eyes the
better.
Official Counter
Adam Bradley
Total observation time
7.5 hrs (109.25)
Observers
Bill Chambers
Patty Gray
Jon Kauffman
Weather
Trace snow overnight. At the OP at 09:00 light snow was drifting over
Tussey Mountain. WNW winds peaking in the afternoon at 50kph. Excellent
visibility to 32km. Mostly cloudy skies for the entire observation effort.
High temperature of 0C at 09:00 and a low of -3C by 15:00. Light snow
falling off and on through the entire count. In the 10:00 hour heavy
graupel fell for about 15 minutes.
Raptor Notes
TV 1 (77) SS 2 (6) CH 1 (5) RT 2 (32) GE 5 (70) Total 11 (251)
GE A 09:22, A 10:13, A 10:13, A 10:38, A 12:34
GE led the flight today with 5 coming through. The two in the 10:00 hour
seemed to be travelling together. One hesitated briefly by the cut and that
is when the second eagle came into view. All but one of today’s GE’s were
following the west side of the ridge. In the 13:00 hour a CH and SS both
came through in that order while I was taking the wind measurement. While
it wasn’t a busy day, migrants were easy to spot as they were all taking
the same flight line.
Bill Chambers spotted the local SSHA zipping around on both sides of the
ridge. Late in the afternoon the resident RTHA was gliding back and forth
across the powerline cut.
Non-raptor Notes
Canada Goose 7
Mourning Dove 2
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Common Raven 1
Visitors
Bill Chambers
Patty Gray
Jon Kauffman
Bill Chambers arrived in the 10:00 hour to help locate some migrating GE.
He got on one pretty quickly after getting situated and another followed
shortly thereafter. I greatly appreciated his help scanning. Later in the
afternoon Patty Gray and Jon Kauffman from Shavers Creek Environmental
Center stopped by for a visit. We got some decent looks at one of our
resident RTHA zipping back and forth across the powerline cut.
Next Day Forecast
Mostly sunny, with a high near 45. West wind 11 to 16 mph, with gusts as
high as 39 mph.
