Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 02, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8.5 hours
Official Counter: Andre Vu
Observers: Jim Schneck, John Travolta
Visitors: 25 visitors at the south lookout today, interacted with 12. Joined in the afternoon by the very funny duo of Jim Schneck and John Travolta (or so he claimed to be!), who enjoyed amazing views of bald eagles and red-shouldered hawks with me.
Weather: 47-61 degrees F, mostly clear skies, light southwest wind gusting up to 8 mph.
Not technically weather, but an unpleasant fertilizer-esque odor that reminded me of my mom's bamboo shoot soup was present all day (she says it tastes better than it smells, but I politely disagree).
Raptor Observations: American Goshawk (1): 0940a Golden eagle (1): 1002u (looked about 4th year - adult) Bald eagle (6): 1159a, 1201a, 1215i, 1255i, 1336i, 1459i
Today was my first watch in the magical month of November, and aside from the high temp being in the 60's, it absolutely felt like it. Just as my beloved fall foliage is vanishing from the branches all too quickly, so too have late season migrants vacated their breeding grounds to pass by the Knob for hopeful birders.
In the first group of vultures and red-tails on the day's first thermal, I caught a weird looking buteo that turned into an immature goshawk! And I didn't even have time to celebrate, because a beautiful golden eagle came cruising just over the treeline shortly after.
The flight stayed exciting with incredible close looks at bald eagles, an adult red-shouldered, and lots of red-tails, 2 of which were good candidates for the abieticola subspecies all the way from boreal Canada - though I have yet to get a good enough look at one to call it.
The day ended with very impressive kettles of migrating vultures - the biggest group of 61 TVs is what was reported according to our protocol, but the actual number of migrants seemed easily over twice that.
In my final month here, I can look back on a really amazing time here on the ridge and be so grateful for this place, its people, and all its spectacular birds. Looking forward to finishing this season strong!
Non-raptor Observations: An adorable SNOW BUNTING hung out on the rocks with me all morning, poking its head out around corners and hopping around carefreely until the first hikers showed up. According to eBird, this is the first record of SNBU on the knob in 5 years, but they've all been right around this time of year.
Purple finches, pine siskins, and robins continue their migration, and a cormorant booking it south was my last bird of the day.
Predictions: Patchy fog before 7am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 68. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Lehigh Gap Nature Center (<mail...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
