Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch State College, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 09, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 18:00:00 Total observation time: 9.53 hours
Official Counter: Adam Bradley, Adam Bradley , Nick Bolgiano
Observers: Don Pote, Nick Bolgiano, Peggy Wagoner
Visitors: Thanks to Don Pote for coming out for the day and helping scan for migrants. Jeff Peters a member of the State College Birding Club joined us in the morning as well. Jim Ruth and Stacie Bird were up in the afternoon when the winds were getting pretty strong. Later in the afternoon Peggy Wagoner came out to help scan. Unfortunately, she didn’t locate any migrating raptors. That speaks to how slow the flight has been these last few days. If anyone can find a sky-high bird trying to sneak by on a non-traditional flight line it is her.
Don Pote Nick Bolgiano Jeff Peters Peggy Wagoner Jim Ruth & Stacie Bird
13 hikers
Weather: SW winds to start the morning at 19kph. By 10:00 they had shifted to the west and eventually WNW peaking at 38kph at 14:00. Visibility was good for most of the count at 12km. Almost no clouds at the beginning of the count, but by 10:00 they started drifting in from the W. This provided good conditions for scanning. By noon though they had all drifted over Tussey Mountain and evaporated over Stone Valley. Low temperature of -3C at 07:30 and a high of 10C by 16:00
Raptor Observations:
TV 1 (80) BE 2 (35) SS 1 (7) RS 1 (18) RT 1 (34) GE 3 (76) Total 9 (273)
GE A 09:55, J 09:55, A 12:53
Another slow flight falling just short of reaching double digits. With DST kicking in I arrived a hour too early. I was treated by locating a roosting adult GE down on Leading Ridge. I got to watch it for 1.5 hours walking along a thick branch in a snag. It was taking turns warming its back in the rising sun, then switching to warm its breast feathers. Occasionally it preened its feathers and seemed to take an interest in what was going on in the forest below its perch. Two CORA were perched a safe distance away and seemed interested in what the GE was up to. Eventually out of the corner of my eye I spotted a nice-looking juvenile GE flapping S before losing it behind Leading Ridge. At the end of the 09:00 hour the resident RTHA was taking swipes at something and it ended up being the juvenile which was trying to get a little lift off Leading Ridge. It worked hard, flapping more than soaring. It eventually did gain altitude climbing slowly up the ridge. Eventually when it gained enough altitude to be above the adult GE, it too took off following the juvenile up the ridge. It eventually broke off and used powered flight to fly NE down Stone Valley. The juvenile flapped up the gap and I lost it behind the trees. This made me realize what the migrating raptors have been up against with cold air in place since 6 March and strong NW winds.
Don Pote located our resident SSHA flying south over the gap a little before noon. He later located our resident COHA soaring out to the north side of the ridge heading south as well.
Non-raptor Observations: Canada Goose 255 Mourning Dove 3 Killdeer 3 Ring-billed Gull 117 American Herring Gull 2 Black Vulture 4 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Blue Jay 2 American Crow 8 Common Raven 2 Black-capped Chickadee 10 Tufted Titmouse 1 Eastern Bluebird 3 American Robin 10 American Pipit 2 House Finch 2 American Goldfinch 4 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 1 Red-winged Blackbird 35 Rusty Blackbird 17
Predictions: Sunny, with a high near 60. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Nick mentioned that most likely the biggest days of the season for GE’s will be this coming Wednesday and Thursday. Also, due to DST we are now counting 09:30-05:30 for the rest of the season.
======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch information may be found at: tusseymountainspringhawkwatch.org/
