Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 27, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 9.58 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers: Corey Husic, Hanah Mahar, Hannah Mahar, John Leskosky
Visitors: Corey Husic guided a Pennsylvania Society for Ornithology field trip up to Bake Oven Knob. They were up early and were treated to a hungry foraging flock of warblers in the canopy near the OP. I felt bad for crashing the party and fishing out the owl pole which is typically a faux pas in birding. They forgave me my trespass and I appreciate them sharing the OP with me as I got set up. They had already picked up a few migrating raptors too. I was impressed with how quickly the other birders learned the landmarks and I appreciated their help in reigning in a chaotic liftoff by spotting distant birds. With this crew of seasoned birders, I felt like nothing was getting by undetected. We were next joined by Hannah Mahar of Route 183 Hawk Watch. Hannah got right to work picking out some kettles and any small accip that tried to slip by. I had to be on it to try to spot any migrant before Corey’s group and Hannah did. Hannah also provided some impromptu site interpretation mostly centered around the BG’s role at the watch. Late in the afternoon we were joined by Hazelton John. He was great help as always spotting many migrating raptors and I was happy he got to see a decent close late season kettle of BW’s to close out a lovely Saturday.
68 hikers
Weather: Light E winds for most of the morning at 1-3mph. By noon the winds had kicked up to 8-12mph for the next two hours. Visibility was decent to 12 miles for most of the morning and afternoon, but gradually increased late in the day to 20 miles. Mostly cloudy skies for the entire survey made for superb spotting conditions. Low temperature of 20C at 07:00 and a high of 25C by 11:00.
Raptor Observations: South Lookout
9.58 hrs (364.22)
BV 3 (112) TV 22 (622) OS 16 (161) BE 6 (207) NH 3 (19) SS 161 (663) CH 5 (67) BW 195 (14791) RT 4 (126) AK 4 (71) ML 3 (37) PG 5 (22) UR 1 (91) Total 428 (17001)
BAEA (6): 11:30 A, 13:27 A (2), 13:44 I, 15:19 A, 15:26 A
PEFA (5): 08:56 U, 10:30 A, 12:45 A, 13:19 A, 14:58 A
Superb flight considering we had great visitation that deserved to see Bake Oven Knob at its finest. The flight got underway in the 08:00 hour with a total of 61 migrants with BW’s leading the flight and the SS’s a close second. By 09:00 the BW’s took a sizable lead nearly doubling the SS’s in this hour. As mentioned below I was happy to have a good group of experienced birders up as it helped greatly with the somewhat chaotic morning flight. Raptors were everywhere on the horizon and no one line seemed to be preferred as they moved past the OP. From the 10:00 hour on the tide had turned and the SS’s slowly began to chip away at the lead the BW’s had built up early in the morning. We all got to witness numerous small accipiters and small falcons take swipes at BG. By 14:00 the SS’s had actually taken the lead and looked to close out the day leading the flight. That all changed though in the 15:00 hour when John and I picked up streaming BW’s coming in off the slope of 5. There ended up being 44 birds in this group that streamed right into the bowl and kettled directly in front of the OP. I was happy to see this again as this has been the largest kettle I have seen in the past 5 days. It is nice to know we may still have a few more nice days of BW’s left before their season is over. The last migrant of the day was our third NH coming in from over the notch and down through the bowl right below the OP. The top-down views are all star at Bake Oven Knob.
Both the resident adult and immature RT were detected during the survey. We also had a local AK fly N up ridge.
Non-raptor Observations: My list is devoid of all the lovely warblers that were on site prior to my arrival. Another flock of CANG flew in from the north in the afternoon. We all got to see some large flocks of BLJA’s out over the notch flying above the valley fog. I appreciated Corey calling out my first AMPI of the season as I heard the slip ip flight call directly overhead. During the last 30 minutes of the count a large flock of AMCR flew up the slope of 1 and over Blue Mountain which is the first time I have seen that this season. AMCR detections prior to this have been relegated to a single bird occasionally crossing the ridge.
Canada Goose 39 Chimney Swift 7 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Blue Jay 51 American Crow 46 Common Raven 7 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Tufted Titmouse 1 Tree Swallow 14 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Carolina Wren 1 American Robin 1 Cedar Waxwing 32 American Pipit 1 American Goldfinch 1
Predictions: Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. Calm wind becoming northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
