It was quite cool and humid this morning. Strong SE winds made things even
feel cooler at 19kph. Visibility and the cloud ceiling were quite low at
the start of the count. By 13:00 the clouds burned off rapidly and the
visibility increased to 12km. Low temperature of 3C at 09:00 and a high of
14C by 15:00.
Raptor Notes
TV 4 (89) BE 7 (44) NH 1 (4) SS 6 (19) CH 1 (9) RS 3 (23) RT 22 (74) RL 1
GE 18 (109) AK 3 (4) UB 1 (6) UR 1 (5) Total 68 (398)
GE A 09:02, A 09:26, A 10:24, A 11:50, A 11:54, U 12:12, A 12:12, A 12:34,
A 13:46, A 13:50, A 13:55, A 13:55, A 14:04, A 15:35, A 15:52, A 16:51, A
16:58, A 17:00
First GE was spotted the minute I arrived at the OP. It was on the S side
of the cut. I believe every GE of the day was parallel to the S side of the
ridge at varying distance out from the ridge. Oddly enough, just about
every buteo and accipiter split off the ridge near the gap and shot N of
the OP. The flight lines by and large were very similar for the entire day
which made getting on migrants easy.
It was hard to have time to scan for resident raptors, but of course the
Leading Ridge RTHA was on territory throughout the flight. I also spotted
to adult BE’s way out over Stone Valley throughout the day.
Non-raptor Notes
Mourning Dove 3
Killdeer 3
Turkey Vulture 8
American Crow 2
Common Raven 8
Black-capped Chickadee 7
Tufted Titmouse 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin 1
Red-winged Blackbird 5
Visitors
Phil Kress was out early this morning just shortly after my first GE passed
by. I greatly appreciate his help spotting birds during the early morning
part of the flight. I look forward to his visit later this season with his
friend from WI. George Young from State College joined us as well in the
morning and helped spot migrants as well. I also enjoyed hearing about his
work with bird collision avoidance for the DOD back in the day. Peggy
Wagoner joined me a little before noon and I really appreciate her catching
the white base of the tail on our first of the season RLHA. Margaret
Brittingham and her pup joined us and she was able to view many passing
migrants during a busy hour of the flight. Laurie and Mark McLaughlin, my
gracious hosts while here rotated in later in the afternoon and I
appreciated their fresh eyes. Laurie found our 4th NOHA of the season on a
non-traditional flight line for the day on the cross ridge run through the
gap. She also picked out several migrating buteos and GE’s. Amy Bergstrom
visited during a good peak in the flight and got to witness some of the
diverse flight we had today.
George Young
Phil Kress
Peggy Wagoner
Nick Bolgiano
Margaret Brittingham
Laurie and Mark McLaughlin
Amy Bergstrom
1 hiker.
Next Day Forecast
Patchy fog before 9am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 60. Calm
wind becoming southeast 5 to 7 mph in the afternoon.
