Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 22, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 9.75 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers: Bob Astleford, John Leskosky
Visitors: John Leskosky made it up in the afternoon and I was happy to have some backup. I was worried I was going to get another flight like yesterday and appreciated having his keen eyes to help scan. We were later joined by Bob Astleford who found our lone immature NOHA of the day trying to slip by just below the cliff face at the OP.
25 hikers
1 red star balloon at 08:09 moving N
Weather: A surprising cool day with persistent cloud cover. Mostly ESE winds for the entire count at 1-3mph. Visibility was good in the morning at 25km, but decreased to 18km by 09:00 due to a haze near Allentown. Cloudy skies for the entire count. The sun did try to burn through the clouds occasionally with a few patches of blue opening up briefly. Low temperature of 13C at 06:45 and a high of 21C by 14:00.
Raptor Observations: South Lookout
9.75 hrs (329.53)
BV 2 (103) TV 20 (327) OS 7 (137) BE 2 (190) NH 1 (15) SS 38 (414) CH 3 (56) BW 196 (14532) RT 4 (118) AK 3 (57) PG 5 (14) UR 6 (84) Total 287 (16276)
BAEA (2): 12:47 I, 13:31 I
PEFA (5): 13:02 U, 13:34 A, 15:15 A, 15:57 A, 16:19 A
BW’s were on the move again with another 196 trickling past the OP. The 09:00 hour saw a decent pulse of them with 37 coming through. BW’s were mostly streaming through single file and many were out over the Lehigh Valley working to get lift. A small kettle was seen at 10:20 with 14 BW’s working together to find the edge of a thermal. The thermals were limited due to the presence of clouds during the entire count. As a result, all raptors were fairly low and streaming past close to the OP. The BW’s peaked in the 10:00 hour with a total of 81 moving through. In the 11:00 hour a nice pulse of 13 SS’s moved through. One came in hard on BG multiple times then zipped right past my face. I was wearing my camouflage sun hoody and appreciated being grazed by this small accipiter. It then perched briefly behind the OP in the canopy of the forest and vocalized multiple times. I tried to remain still and sure enough another SS came in on the owl. The two then left together so they may have been travelling on the family plan. I picked up a distant PEFA over Grant White hill at 13:02. We then had 3 more adults come very close to the OP providing superb looks as they streamed past. Bob located two more towards the end of the count that came out of the bowl and the evening light on them was nice.
The two adult and one immature RT were detected during the count multiple times. They were spotted kiting on the slope of 1 late in the afternoon, over the notch and down in the bowl.
Non-raptor Observations: Large foraging flocks of TRES during the survey. Hazelton John found me a county lister DCCO. Large CORA party out on the slope of 1 late in the afternoon. Several came S to check out BG.
Canada Goose 16 Wild Turkey 1 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 2 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 2 Pileated Woodpecker 3 Northern Flicker 1 Blue Jay 2 American Crow 2 Common Raven 17 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Tree Swallow 402 Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 Carolina Wren 1 American Goldfinch 1 Scarlet Tanager 1
Predictions: A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Southwest wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
