Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Aug 18, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8.15 hours
Official Counter: Adam Bradley
Observers:
Visitors: Frank and Moondog who maintain this section of the Appalachian Trail stopped by to enjoy the view and have their lunch. They also picked up as much trash as possible at the observation point. They told me I would see them once a month during the season. Later in the afternoon I was joined by Meg and Alex Diamond from CT. They were on their way back to CT from VA and stopped in to spot a few raptors. Meg has been getting into birding and has started to visit some of the hawk watch sites in the east. I gave them some info on Quaker and Chestnut Ridge in their neck of the woods. I was also joined by a local high school teacher and his kids. They had been to Hawk Mountain several times and brought their binoculars too. His kids had been to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center many times over the years on school field trips.
27 hikers
Weather: Mostly ESE winds for the entire count at 4-7mph. Visibility was superb after last night’s rain. To the north and east visibility was pretty much unlimited. That coupled with a persistent cloud cover made for ideal conditions to spot migrating raptors. Low temperature of 18C at 07:30 and a high of 23C at 14:00. At the end of the count, it was actually cool enough to wear a windbreaker which was lovely.
Raptor Observations: 8.15 hrs (30.17)
TV 13 (42) OS 7 (9) BE 4 (7) SS 1 BW 2 (4) RT 2 (5) PG 1 (3) UR 1 (7) Total 31 (88)
BAEA (4): 9:59 A, 10:58 I, 13:05 A, 13:33 A
PEFA (1): 13:11 U
The flight got underway in the 09:00 with a total of 5 raptors migrating past the OP. It was an ideal day for me to study some of the flight lines the migrants were taking along the ridge with the clouds providing superb spotting conditions. Many were detected near the notch, but kettles would form to the N of the OP. The first kettle of the day included several TUVU which helped in locating migrants many times during the day’s effort. In the kettle of TUVU was a migrating adult BE and of course at the top of the kettle was the BW’s. While I was sorting this group out, I was startled by something colliding with the owl decoy. I looked over to see an immature RT was retracting its landing gear after taking a swipe at the decoy. It let out its dry raspy call and took several more swipes at the decoy. In 8 years, I have yet to have a migrating raptor actually make contact with one of my decoys so I was ecstatic. Some hikers heard all the commotion and got to take in the last of the action before the angry buteo moved S. The flight remained pretty steady until noon when the flight lulled for an hour. In the 13:00 hour it picked up again with a pulse of 4 more migrants moving past the observation point. The highlight being a PEFA that was soaring out above some TUVU near the towers. It came off the top of the thermal and flapped powerfully SE over the Lehigh Valley. I tracked it for quite a long while before losing it below horizon. Closed out a superb day with 2 OSPR directly over the OP working a thermal together and possibly inspecting the decoy from a safe distance before moving S along the ridge.
The first resident raptor of the day was a MERL that came in hard on the other small owl decoy at 08:52. This one is named Bubo Chiquito or BC. The MERL must have made close to 10 swipes at the owl which I have now wedged in an even more prominent position near the furthest east part of the outcrop near the observation point. Seeing the MERL locked in on BC with its talons down was awesome. BC will be my number one decoy as it never flinched or batted an eye during a fierce first day on the job. At 11:41 a BWHA was spotted flying low along the E side of the ridge flying NE. At 11:44 a TUVU was spotted flying NE with no tail.
Non-raptor Observations: Nice to see the CHSW early in the survey. One REVI showed up and was sounding the alarm about BC. Several nice flocks of CEDW moved through in the morning hours. Nice looks at a GBHE early in the morning as well.
Wild Turkey 1 Mourning Dove 2 Chimney Swift 3 Great Blue Heron 1 Barred Owl 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 2 Northern Flicker 1 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1 Eastern Phoebe 2 Red-eyed Vireo 7 Blue Jay 1 American Crow 1 Common Raven 2 Tree Swallow 4 Purple Martin 1 Barn Swallow 19 Cedar Waxwing 48 American Goldfinch 1
Predictions: Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Southeast wind around 5 mph.
======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
