Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 23, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8.47 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers:
Visitors: 21 hikers
Weather: The OP was fogged in until 09:30 when the clouds began to lift rapidly. S winds for most of the count at 1-3mph. Visibility was limited due to fog and the low ceiling height of the clouds until 09:30 when it opened up to 3 miles on the South. The visibility over Lehigh Valley never improved more than 12 miles as a haze was present behind Grant White Hill for the afternoon. Mostly cloudy skies made the warm temperature bearable and made for excellent spotting conditions. Low temperature of 16C at 07:00 and a high of 26C by noon. By 17:30 a good rain developed over Lehigh Gap and along Blue Mountain thunder was heard.
Raptor Observations: South Lookout
8.47 hrs (338)
BV 4 (107) TV 25 (541) OS 3 (145) BE 3 (193) SS 18 (432) CH 2 (58) RS 1 (8) BW 33 (14565) RT 1 (119) AK 1 (58) ML 1 (34) UR 2 (86) Total 99 (16375)
BAEA (3): 09:33 U, 11:07 A, 12:43 A
The flight got underway once the fog cleared at 09:30 with a total of 20 migrants moving past Bake Oven Knob. Nice diversity too with 5 species detected. Most birds were close flying below the low ceiling on the S side of Blue Mountain. As the day progressed the ceiling lifted and the temperature rose and raptors began to fly a little higher. Almost all migrants were pounding the same flight line to the S of the OP over the Lehigh Valley. The flight peaked in the 10:00 hour with 17 BW’s coming through mostly in single file. There were a few groups of 3 – 4 detected in this hour that kettled slightly before moving southwest. A lone RS joined them and it was good to see one for comparison after seeing thousands of BW’s these past few weeks. The flight then slowly tapered and came to a halt at the top of the 14:00 hour. I would imagine the conditions weren’t good for migrating raptors with rain approaching from the south.
A resident immature BE was spotted at 09:33 flying up ridge over the bowl. At 10:58 the immature RT was dogfighting with TV’s out over the notch.
Non-raptor Observations: BLJA are starting to migrate along Blue Mountain. A nice foraging flock of hungry warblers followed the TUTI and BCCH to the OP late in the count. A few new detections for the season were the BBWA and a PAWA pumping its tail. The migrants were attracted to several large swarms of insects above the canopy of the trees behind the OP.
Wild Turkey 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 2 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 2 Northern Flicker 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Blue Jay 15 American Crow 2 Common Raven 4 Black-capped Chickadee 1 Tufted Titmouse 2 Tree Swallow 36 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Carolina Wren 2 American Goldfinch 2 Northern Parula 2 Bay-breasted Warbler 1 Blackburnian Warbler 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 Palm Warbler 2 Pine Warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1 Black-throated Green Warbler 1 Scarlet Tanager 1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Predictions: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 4pm and 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth 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
