Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 10, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8.52 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers:
Visitors: 7 hikers
Weather: Interesting weather day as I didn’t see anything about the possibility of precipitation in the forecast. At the OP at 07:00 it looked to be raining to the east. Winds were out of the east for the entire survey at 4-7mph. Other than a few bands of rain working their way through the Lehigh Valley in the morning it was superb spotting conditions with views to 20km by 08:00. The visibility improved to the east for the entire survey. Mostly cloudy skies for the entire count which made for superb spotting conditions. Around 13:00 it looked like the stratus clouds may burn off, but they built up again by 14:00. Low temperature of 15C at 08:00 and a high of 21C by 13:00. It was cool and humid enough to wear a windbreaker, mid-layer and snow hat from 07:00 until 10:00.
Raptor Observations: South Lookout
8.52 hrs (210.48)
BV 3 (68) TV 24 (321) OS 1 (64) NH 1 (5) SS 10 (58) CH 1 (16) BW 70 (217) RT 2 (66) AK 1 (12) UR 1 (26) Total 114 (966)
The flight got underway early with the first raptor a NOHA being spotted at the close of the 07:00 hour. A steady build up through the morning with a nice showing of SS’s many mobbing BG the decoy. BW’s started to trickle through with the first group being spotted on the ridge near the notch. Later BW’s were spotted either as solo birds or the occasional group of 3 out over Lehigh Valley. Around 11:00 I was thinking it was back to the usual taper to nothing for the remainder of the count. I picked up a high streaming solo BW at the top of the noon hour and that put me on high alert as I couldn’t figure out where this bird had cruised in from. At 12:12 I spotted what I thought was a kettle of TUVU along the ridge near the notch, but when I got on it with the bins I realized I had the first BW kettle of the season. Fortunately, I was getting on this kettle as it was still building. The buteos may have been coming in from the N of Blue Mountain as every time I counted the kettle I kept coming up with a higher tally. After reaching the top of the thermal which wasn’t that high the group streamed off over the NW side of the OP. This allowed for the most accurate count, and I was thankful for the superb cloud cover to pick out their silhouettes against. They kettled again to the SW of the OP, again not climbing very high before streaming SW. They appeared to be following the ridgetop of Blue Mountain. Another nice pulse of accipiters and BW’s in the 14:00 hour made me think about possibly staying later. Many of these raptors were following the same flight line as the high streaming BW at the beginning of the noon hour.
The first raptor of the survey was a resident RSHA that bubbled up out of the bowl at 08:22. This buteo flew north over the ridge so it wasn’t counted as a migrant. At 09:24 a COHA came in hard on BG the decoy before moving north up ridge. One adult and immature RT was spotted throughout the survey. The immature isn’t sure about the new decoy and has called at it angrily multiple times the last few days, but it hasn’t taken a swipe like it did at BC the smaller decoy. The immature went in and bumped all the vultures off their roost at 14:41 which attracted the attention of a juvenile BE. The BE looked to be migrating, but returned a few minutes later and was chasing some of the vultures. It then moved up ridge and left a swath of bumped vultures which led to the high count of the day. I will be paying close attention to that going forward.
Non-raptor Observations: Large flock of TRES several times during the count foraging together over the notch. A nice foraging flock of BCCH, TUTI, HAWO and some migrating warblers in tow visited towards the end of the survey. It was mildly distracting to sort through this group while keeping an eye out for high flying BW’s.
Wild Turkey 1 Mourning Dove 1 Chimney Swift 17 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 1 Red-eyed Vireo 1 Blue Jay 3 Common Raven 2 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Tufted Titmouse 2 Tree Swallow 39 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Cedar Waxwing 13 American Goldfinch 5 Tennessee Warbler 1 Nashville Warbler 1 American Redstart 1 Magnolia Warbler 1
Predictions: Sunny, with a high near 77. North wind around 5 mph. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
