Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 04, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Andre Vu
Observers: Judy Paterson, Lizzie Sgambelluri
Visitors: 30 visitors today enjoying the warm weather, interacted with 17. Joined by Judy Paterson, who had much nicer weather today than when she first came up, and Lizzie Sgambelluri, who thought the Knob's running joke about how eagles have wormholes was hilarious. Not only were eagles appearing out of nowhere, the haze made it look like they could vanish into thin air too!
Weather: 52-72 degrees F, clear skies, but some haze in the morning. Light south wind gusting up to 11.
Raptor Observations: Golden eagle (1): 1317i Bald eagle (6): 1235i, 1333a, 1333a, 1428i, 1458i, 1511a
Apologies in advance for the long write-up, but something was in the air this afternoon, and it wasn't just the smell of fertilizer. For one reason or another, raptors were at each other's throats like I've never seen in an epic hawkwatch fight night!
To start us off, a resident immature and adult bald eagle tangled in the air for multiple minutes over our entire viewshed of the Kittatinny Ridge, swooping and flipping upside-down to bare their talons - and then they started a rematch 2 hours later!
On top of that, locally hunting buteos were constantly getting into each other's airspace, with red-tailed hawks diving at each other nonstop, and even an immature red-shouldered following suit throughout the day. At one point, one of the red-tails was chasing after a raven, when a sharpie stooped perfectly vertically over 100 feet to join the fray!
But ladies and gentlemen, the headliner fight of today's event easily took the cake. As we watched one peregrine migrate through, a second decided that directly above the Knob was the perfect place to duel, dramatically stooping in from above. Lizzie and I witnessed their aerial prowess as they dove at and swerved around each other in an epic avian dogfight, hurling insults so loudly we could hear them calling from our seats. Eventually one broke off and we watched them both go through.
Best individual bird of the day was Lizzie's lifer golden eagle, an immature that rose from the treeline to the troposphere without flapping once.
Non-raptor Observations: I got the resident woodpecker slam on the way up, with a downy, hairy, pileated, and red-bellied all within 20 yards of each other. Lots of juncos and golden-crowned kinglets as well. A white-throated sparrow and winter wren showed up at the lookout.
Predictions: Rain before 4pm, then a chance of rain after 5pm. High near 69. South wind around 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Lehigh Gap Nature Center (<mail...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
