Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch State College, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Mar 12, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 10 hours
Official Counter: Bill Chambers, Thomas Filip
Observers: Debra Rittlemann, Nick Bolgiano, Robert McLaughlin
Visitors: Ron, Cindy
Weather: A cold and windy day with a low of -1.4℃ in the morning and a high of 2.7℃ in the afternoon. Consistent NW winds at 12-19mph for most of the day with some stronger gusts above 20mph. Cloudy in the morning but cleared up quickly between 14:00-13:00.
3 GOEA were spotted by Bill early in the morning before 08:00. Most likely they put down yesterday when it started to rain and thunder in the afternoon and were eager to go first thing in the morning. Afterwards we would get a GOEA about every 1-2 hours until 13:13. The afternoon was slow with no GOEA, or other raptors, seen after the last one.
Surprisingly, a light morph RLHA also flew past at 08:48 heading SW on the N side of the ridge, the first and most likely only of the season. We also had 1 BAEA and 1 RTHA.
Non-raptor Observations: A slow day for other birds. We had a flock of 19 CANG and 1 AGOL flyover.
Predictions: Tomorrow should be cloudy with S winds. Saturday looks to be sunny with WNW winds. Sunday looks to be SE/SSE winds. If the forecast holds true, tomorrow and Sunday should be good days, probably the last good days for peak GOEA migration. Saturday might be decent. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Thomas Filip () Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch information may be found at: tusseymountainspringhawkwatch.org/
