Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 8.5 hours
Official Counter: Diane Stewart
Observers:
Visitors: Nathan Swarey (he was a huge help!). Max and family from Shippensburg. Steve McAninch who was also a big help. Dena Stauffer whose eyes are always good! Brad Young who was across the road yesterday but wasn't sure what was going on with all of the people looking at the sky so he came back today and since I was alone, we did a brief intro to raptor migration. Interesting tidbit from today. I asked Nathan how he knew today should be a good day. He shared that if he can hear the trains in the morning when he gets up, he knows the winds are from the South! So much for our technology! We just need to pay more attention to the sounds we hear and the direction from which they come.
Weather: Warm with light winds out of the SE. High wispy clouds to start the morning. The afternoon had little cloud coverage but quite a bit of haze making viewing difficult.
Raptor Observations: First bird was a ss at 7:28. BW were in small groups of singles up to 7. One group of 12 bw. Mostly they were flying single file on the south ridge about half way over the valley. Both the kestrel and the merlin were near the road and just below the guard rail.
Non-raptor Observations: All other observations were due to Nathan Swarey who took a 1/2 day off work to help on the lookout, and Max (who is now 13)from Shippensburg. Be ready to be impressed! Black Throated Green Warbler, Northern Parula, Red-headed wp, Bay Breasted warbler, Eastern Towhee BC Chickadee, pileated wp, Tennessee Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Chimney swifts, White Breasted Nuthatch, Phoebe, E.Wood Peewee, Blue Jay, Crow, Black Pole Warbler, Chestnut sided warbler, Scarlett Tanager, Yellow rumped warbler, Carolina Wren, ruby throated hummingbird, gold finch, cedar waxwing, pine warbler, raven (yes, Nemo), TV and BV. AND, finally, more lantern flies than I've seen so far this year!
Predictions: More eyes equals more birds! ======================================================================== Report submitted by Darrell Smith (<oleagleye...>)
