Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 09, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8.42 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers: Cynthia Berger
Visitors: Claudia Berger was up in the morning and great help spotting as always. She got to experience a SS repeatedly mobbing BG within meters of where she was standing.
15 hikers 2 AT hikers
Weather: E winds for the entire count at 4-7mph. Visibility was superb for the entire survey. There were clouds out on the horizon far to the east which did help in detecting the morning portion of the limited flight. Low temperature of 17C at 07:05 and a high of 22C by 10:00.
Raptor Observations: 8.42 hrs (201.97)
BV 3 (65) TV 10 (297) BE 1 (101) SS 6 (48) CH 1 (15) BW 10 (147) RT 2 (64) AK 1 (11) UR 2 (25) Total 36 (852)
BAEA (1): 10:00 A
The way the morning started it looked like we might get a decent flight. The accipiters were the first migrating raptors of the day to get moving, low on the slope of 1 in the 07:00 hour. By 08:00 4 BW’s moved through further out over Lehigh Valley. Another nice pulse of BW’s came through in the 09:00 hour again mostly far out over Lehigh Valley. The 10:00 hour saw a nice flurry of SS’s 2 of which came in on BG the larger decoy. One SS took multiple swipes zipping back into the forest to the S of the OP only to get back into position for another approach. After coming in on the decoy I love watching them readjust their tail feathers and look over their shoulder to see what impact their attack has had. In the 11:00 hour I was looking through the scope when a heard a small slice through the wind next to me and looked up to see an AK going after the decoy. BG was definitely the MVP at Bake Oven Knob netting 30% of the detections. Unfortunately, the flight came to a halt at noon with only a couple migrants trickling through during the remainder of the survey.
RT’s were quite active on Blue Mountain. One adult was pretty focused on hunting and was spotted during the entire day kiting over its favorite hunting areas up ridge. At one point I saw one with what appeared to be prey or a stick in its talons. There was also an immature that is very focused on dogfighting with every bird it can on the ridge. It may be an offspring of the adult as it seems to tolerate its attacks. In the afternoon it was focused on repeatedly taking swipes at TV’s in the bowl. Late in the afternoon it was dogfighting with CORA’s in the bowl. An interesting detection was a tagged BLVU at 13:17. At first, I was sorting out another bird, but thought to myself that is a weird plumage for a BV. I looked at it again and realized it had two light blue wing tags on the topside of the wing. The resident TV’s seemed quite interested in this vulture forming a large kettle above it. Of course, later a CORA had to mob it as it is in their nature to locate the birds with unique plumage.
Non-raptor Observations: One brave RTHU mobbed BG the decoy in the morning. One CORA was also very interested in the tagged BLVU. The REVI’s aren’t singing like they used to in the morning at the parking lot. Late in the afternoon two CORA’s spent nearly 1.5 hours flying together throughout the bowl in unison.
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 1 Mourning Dove 1 Chimney Swift 3 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 2 Northern Flicker 1 Red-eyed Vireo 2 Blue Jay 2 American Crow 2 Common Raven 5 Black-capped Chickadee 3 Tufted Titmouse 1 Barn Swallow 3 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1 Carolina Wren 2 Cedar Waxwing 14 American Goldfinch 3 Black-throated Green Warbler 1 Scarlet Tanager 1
Predictions: Partly sunny, with a high near 71. Northeast wind around 5 mph. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
