Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 01, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Rick Morrissey
Observers: Brett White, Gabi Grafenberg, John Good, Linda Blacketter
Visitors: We had a total of 181 visitors, and we engaged with 71 very nice folks. Thanks so much Linda Blacketter and John Good for joining us today as observers bringing your keen eyes to spot those really high birds! Brett White, our weekend intern, once again you dazzled us all with your greeting and engagement of our many visitors.
One of those highly enthusiastic visitors was Gabi, who visited yesterday and now she is back today. Gabi was so intent on finding birds, I asked her if she wanted to be designated as an observer in today's count. She immediately said "yes", and then next thing I know she was studying my "Hawks at a Distance" field guide by Jerry Ligouri, my personal favorite 'go to' reference book. Welcome to the team Gabi!
Weather: Partly cloudy with plentiful sunshine throughout the day. Winds were light and variable, an East tail wind to start, with ESE, SE, and South winds in the afternoon. Wind speeds varied from 0-1 to 1-2 in the morning, then 1-3 mph in the afternoon. Visibility was great at 25-30 miles with high-level Cirrus, Cirrostratus, and maybe some Cirrocumulus clouds which made spotting those high Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks a little easier.
Raptor Observations: Looking at the predicted East winds in the morning, and the light and variable winds in the afternoon with the potential of 100% cloud cover in the afternoon, it looked like it was going to be another slow migration day. It was all Redtails from 0800 EST to noon, a total of nine, the anticipated slow day unfolding. Then John Good arrived just before noon and I asked if he "brought any hawks with him." Almost immediately two Redtails high above South Lookout were spotted, then John said 'two more following" and three more followed those for a total of seven. For the next two hours, a total of 28 Redtails were counted, which normally in November would be considered 'just OK'. Yet everything is relative, we then had five Adult Bald Eagles soaring high above us for about 20 minutes, eventually two of those adults did migrate though and were counted. We were now thinking 'this is turning out not half bad' even before we spotted two high flying Golden Eagles.
We also had pretty good looks at two immature Red-shouldered hawks near the noon hour, first spotted in the 'bowl' and then they took advantage of the strong afternoon thermals. About an hour later we spotted another very high Red-shoulder near the sun which was un-aged, but it's wings 'reaching forward' in a soar was a definitive field mark. Two Sharpshin hawks, one Coop, a female Northern harrier, and that incredibly high Kestrel flying out of the sun that was spotted by John Good rounded out the day. "John, how do you do what you do?"
Bald Eagles (2) - 1118 (adult); 1125 (adult)
Golden Eagles (2) - 1221 (un-aged), 1356 (JUV)
Non-raptor Observations: Redbellied WP, Bluebirds, Juncos, chickadees, we heard Wild turkeys and of course, the Pileated WPs.
Predictions: Mostly cloudy with highs in the mid 60s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Lehigh Gap Nature Center (<mail...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
