Observation start time: 05:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 10.25 hours
Official Counter: Maili Waters
Observers: Andy Guthrie, Bridget Watts, Greg Lawrence, Luke Seitz, Mike Tetlow, Mitch Barry, Niki Banke, Roger Clark
Visitors: Many! Today was Bird of Prey Days!
Weather: South winds all day started light and increased as the day progressed. Temps started in the 50s and reached a high of 78F. Mostly cloudy skies all day with rain hitting just before 5pm.
Raptor Observations: Just before noon we received a call from Andy Guthrie notifying us about a Swallow-tailed Kite that just flew over him heading our way. After a few minutes of frantic scanning Luke Seitz picked it out over the maintenance building heading southeast. It was pretty far away and only in view for a split second, but a couple people managed to see the dorsal side of the bird as it banked! This is only the second ever Swallow-tailed Kite to be recorded during a spring migration count here at Braddock Bay (the first one was in 1987)!
Including the very exciting Swallow-tailed Kite we saw a total of 1,167 migrating raptors today! This is the first day of the season where Sharp-shinned Hawks (412) were the most numerous species. Broad-winged Hawks (321) and Turkey Vultures (266) were also moving in decent numbers. It was also a great day for American Kestrels, with a day total of 72. In addition to the kestrels, we also saw the two other falcon species; Peregrine and Merlin.
Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors: The morning flight consisted of the usual suspects like American Robins and Red-winged Blackbirds with the highlight being hundreds of Rusty Blackbirds and Purple Finches. There were a couple new species for the year including Palm Warbler and Chimney Swift. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Maili Waters (<mailirwaters...>) Braddock Bay information may be found at: http://www.bbrr.org/
