Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 11, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:15:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Andre Vu
Observers: Alanna Weiss, Brody Ritter, Max Ferrelli , Sean Hicks
Visitors: 12 visitors today, interacted with 9. Had much-appreciated volunteer help from Brody Ritter and Max Ferrelli early on, later joined by Sean Hicks, Mark Capozzoli, Alana Weiss, and Brett White, all of whom were amazing at helping me spot and ID birds in today's blue dome of death. Congrats to Max on his lifer red-headed woodpecker and Cape May warbler and Sean's long-awaited broad-winged hawks!
Weather: 69-91 degrees F, nice NW wind with gusts up to 13 all day. That same wind also unfortunately blew away all our cloud cover by noon, making spotting the raptors in the blue a little tricky - but I had a great crew with me and we did pretty well!
Nonstop broad-winged action for the first few hours made way for a great variety of other raptors streaming through the rest of the afternoon. Verified our first osprey carrying a fish - looked like a bass or yellow perch. We also learned that small planes look a lot like eagles.
Non-raptor Observations: A decent warbler flight earlier in the morning that seemed to be a downsized repeat of last Friday - mostly Cape May. Also ~50 waxwings, red-headed woodpecker, pine warbler, and our first waterfowl of the season, a Canada goose and probable cormorant. Brett had a male Passerina sp. that may have been blue grosbeak.
Brett also saw a copperhead at the south lookout on his way out, which (un)fortunately was gone by the time I made it down.
Great insects as well - Halloween pennant, green darners, Ammophila sp. hunting a caterpillar, great spangled fritillary, smaller fritillary sp., mantis sp., as well as the regular monarchs, tiger swallowtails, and red-spotted purples in big numbers.
Predictions: Partly sunny, with a high near 78. Northeast wind around 5 mph becoming south in the afternoon. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Lehigh Gap Nature Center (<mail...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
