Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 15, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 18:00:00 Total observation time: 10.5 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers: Daniel Kell, Doug Burton, Rick Gaeta, Shelly Culbertson
Visitors: Doug Burton was up early and great help as always spotting birds. I am happy he made it back in time from NY to enjoy some of peak migration at Bake Oven Knob. Daniel Kell who sponsors our site in memory of his brother on Hawkcount.org joined us and got to see an excellent diversity of raptors. I really appreciate his sponsoring our site. Rick Gaeta was up in the afternoon and was great help spotting many of our accipiters. We were also joined by Richard who was up last week as well during some of the big flights at the end of last week. I really appreciate his keen eye as he is one of the best spotters, I have had helping me on these bigger flights. Today happens to be the biggest single day I have counted and there is no way I could have done it without his help.
23 hikers
Weather: E winds at 4-7 mph. Visibility to the S was limited for most of the count at 7 miles due to a low haze in Lehigh Valley. By 15:00 the haze had subsided somewhat allowing visibility to 20 miles. Cumulus clouds built in during the afternoon. The clouds were welcome as it made for excellent spotting conditions to pick up some of the largest kettles of the day. Low temperature of 20C at 07:00 and a high of 26C by 10:00.
Raptor Observations: South Lookout
10.5 hours (261.73)
BV 3 (86) TV 26 (394) OS 6 (112) BE 2 (151) SS 39 (172) CH 3 (39) RS 1 (5) RT 8 (96) AK 5 (38) ML 3 (22) UR 4 (52) Total 4702 (11001)
A superb flight got underway in the 07:00 hour with a solo AK mobbing BG the owl while I was setting up. The 09:00 hour saw the first pulse of the day with 34 migrants coming through of 6 species. The SS’s had a nice showing in this hour. The flight then lulled until about noon when we started picking up a few decent sized kettles. These eventually were surpassed by kettles numbering 550 and 104 respectively. The biggest pulse of the day came through in the 14:00 hour with a kettle of 707 and another numbering 1416. The second and larger group was so large I finally had to start counting in blocks of 10. I kept getting pushed back into the trees trying to keep up with these high streaming buteos and I realized if I didn’t shift gears, I was going to start missing birds. They were stacked on top of each other as they streamed out several hundred in each group. They streamed by then kettled again to the S of Blue Mountain. These large kettles were spotted over the Lehigh Valley a little to the S of the OP. The 15:00 hour saw another excellent push of BW’s, but now they were streaming to the N of the OP following the ridge top proper of Blue Mountain. The largest and last big group was spotted at 16:05 with 947 individuals. I decided to stay late to pick up the last of the flight as I was still getting decent pulses of BW’s and accipiters at 16:52.
The resident RT’s were out and seemed to be having some sort of dispute. An adult was harassed by an immature, possibly begging as it cried following the adult past the OP at 10:38. At 11:16 an adult BE was spotted sky high above the OP moving up ridge. A juvenile PEFA was spotted several times during the count coming in for a better look at BG the decoy. It was observed at 13:42, 15:03 and 16:35. During the 15:03 visit it swooped hard on the owl and may have been disappointed in the impact it had on BG as it looked back over the top of its wing.
Non-raptor Observations: A RBGR was detected early in the morning by the squeaky gym shoe call. One INBU was spotted foraging low in the canopy near the OP. Two AHGU flew in from the S heading up the Lehigh Valley. These would be the first gulls I have detected this season. The favorite detection of the day was one of the last SS’s coming in to mob the owl, only to be mobbed by a RTHU. It’s about time another migrant returned fire on these little shredders.
Wild Turkey 1 Mourning Dove 1 Chimney Swift 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3 American Herring Gull 2 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 3 Northern Flicker 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Yellow-throated Vireo 1 Red-eyed Vireo 1 Blue Jay 3 American Crow 2 Common Raven 4 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Tufted Titmouse 1 Tree Swallow 61 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 Carolina Wren 1 Cedar Waxwing 17 Purple Finch 1 American Goldfinch 3 Scarlet Tanager 1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1 Indigo Bunting 1
Predictions: Mostly sunny, with a high near 76. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
