Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 11, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Andre Vu
Observers: Jeff Hopkins, John Good
Visitors: 18 visitors today at the south lookout. I had the lovely surprise today of meeting a Vietnamese mother and her 2 daughters, the only other Vietnamese people I�ve met since my stay in the Lehigh Valley. It was really, really nice to get to use my family�s language again, though I�m afraid I was lacking some of the vocabulary needed to explain what a turkey vulture is.
Joined today by Jeff Hopkins and John Good - so good to finally meet! They both came with a mission and left with a nice trophy: today�s golden eagle, although not counted as a migrant, will count as John�s county lifer and a year bird for Jeff�s 2026 goal to see 200 species in Lehigh! After some high-fives, we had a great time sharing birding and travel stories in between action.
Weather: 46-57 degrees F, mostly clear skies, light southwest wind briefly gusting up to 11mph.
Raptor Observations: Golden Eagle: 0 in active migration, but 1 first-year who stayed in the area and made appearances all morning Bald eagle (4): 1159a, 1256i, 1416i, 1424i
My first bird of the day was a young golden who likely roosted in the area overnight. I saw it majestically rise up out of the woods, tail and nape gleaming in the morning sun, only to immeadiately be chased by ravens up and down the ridge for almost a whole hour (I was keeping track!). Poor guy. What I assume had to be the same bird made another brief appearance around noon for us before turning upridge and disappearing.
Otherwise a somewhat slow day, but had some good looks at a nice heavily marked abieticola red-tailed hawk and a couple other convincing candidates.
Non-raptor Observations: One single flock of roughly 500 grackles! Also a decent amount of goldfinch activity. Some interesting insects were out on the unexpectedly warm day, including a butterfly sp. and some beautiful leafhoppers.
Predictions: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. High near 57. North wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Lehigh Gap Nature Center (<mail...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
