Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 06, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8.82 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers: Brody Ritter, Greg
Visitors: Greg was up early in the morning to photograph birds. He is more of a regular at Little Gap as it is closer to his homestead. He was great company and helped spot some naked eye birds that had slipped below the OP. Brody Ritter was up early too and spent the first half of the day spotting many distant migrants out over the Lehigh Valley. When Brody isn’t literally kicking ass and saving lives, he is a superb spotter. He found our TV kettle lifting off from a new roost I wasn’t aware of and of course several migrating raptors appeared near this kettle which helped with getting our momentum going. I would also like to point out that Brody has impeccable taste in men’s hawk watching fashion as he had some excellent camo on. With the two of us tucked down in the rocks we witnessed some good swipes at BG.
30 hikers
Weather: Another scorcher up at Bake Oven Knob. I didn’t quite catch Greg’s dry humor when he asked me if this was October? Light and variable wind to start the count. By 11:00 the winds were out of the south for the remainder of the survey at 4-7mph. Visibility was limited in the morning due to a haze near Allentown. It did improve throughout the count as the sun moved behind us and views improved to 16 miles by noon. Only a few scattered clouds far to the SW late in the afternoon. Low temperature of 18C at 06:45 and a high of 26C by noon.
Raptor Observations: South Lookout
8.82 hrs (441.28)
BV 5 (136) TV 21 (810) OS 2 (174) BE 6 (252) NH 3 (35) SS 26 (895) CH 3 (84) RT 9 (155) PG 1 (27) UR 9 (133) Total 85 (17679)
BAEA (6): 10:19 I, 10:51 I, 12:49 A, 13:07 A, 13:07 I, 14:07 A
PEFA (1): 09:25 I
Decent flight despite the brutal blue sky of death. The flight got underway in the 08:00 hour with SS’s moving mostly below the cliff of the OP. I am happy Sam Arnold mentioned how important it is to be as far up on the edge of the OP over the cliff as possible when the accipiter flight gets underway. That is certainly becoming a major player in the early morning hours as the base of the cliff gets good solar input. The flight continued to build through the 09:00 hour, but Brody and I had to work a little harder as most of these migrants were far out over the Lehigh Valley below horizon. It helped to have an additional spotter for when we lost a bird while tracking it against the vegetation. One of us was usually able to pick it up again. Greg helped spot some of the 2 for 1 SS’s after I thought there was only one. The flight peaked early in the 10:00 hour with 13 migrating raptors moving through with some good diversity. By now the raptors were climbing much higher with the high flyer award going to the first NOHA of the count being detected. It seemed to be following a line of a migrating BE, but staying far above it effortlessly. The flight began to slowly taper after this, but I had fun trying to keep the momentum going as long as possible. I find I actually work harder on slow days as the birds seem to be scattered on the horizon. It isn’t like when the BW’s are streaming through and you keep seeing them pounding the same line all day. I am consistently surprised by where I spot migrants and with 200 degrees of a viewshed to scan there is plenty to keep the seasoned hawk watcher busy. Closed out the days count with a nice grey ghost in close to the OP for the discerning hawk watcher.
At 11:06 as Brody was leaving our resident immature RT mobbed BG before moving up ridge. At 14:29 the blue tagged BV was spotted on the slope of 1. It seems to be spending more time on the south side of the mountain. At 14:41 an adult BE was spotted over Lehigh Valley that moved north below eye level up the valley. A little after this a skirmish broke out between 3 juvenile BE’s in fairly close to the OP. Two of the BE’s seemed to be ganging up on the other and the other did it’s best to get the hell out of there. I watched this skirmish continue all the way to the slope of one where the fight became a little fairer with just two individuals involved. The one getting swiped at had to do a barrel role and flash its talons upwards at the attacker multiple times. Eventually the attacker broke off and came all the way back through the bowl and flexed on BG momentarily. It seemed pretty ticked off when BG didn’t flinch and it was awesome to see it looking below its wing repeatedly at BG as it moved out over the Lehigh Valley. A helpful CORA mobbed the exhausted BE left on the slope of 1, never one to miss out on raptor skirmish.
Non-raptor Observations: First YBSA of the season detected low over the bowl.
Wild Turkey 1 Chimney Swift 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 3 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 2 Northern Flicker 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Yellow-throated Vireo 1 Blue Jay 1 American Crow 2 Common Raven 4 Black-capped Chickadee 1 Tufted Titmouse 1 Tree Swallow 30 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 Carolina Wren 2 American Goldfinch 2 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 2 Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Predictions: Increasing clouds, with a high near 77. South wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
