Afternoon flight

Light winds and mostly sunny weather is what we got Saturday afternoon, and as expected, this resulted in some hawk movement over Whitefish Point. The only raptor seen during the morning was a Cooper's Hawk doing a courtship display flight. It will be interesting to see if a pair will establish a territory on Whitefish Point.

On the stroke of noon, the first migrating raptor of the day was a juvenile Golden Eagle, going high across the bay in a straight line. One of the last birds today was also a Golden Eagle, this time an adult, which did not succeed in crossing and may show up again sometime in the next few days. Other raptors counted as migrants included an adult male Northern Goshawk, an adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk, an adult Red-shouldered Hawk, two Red-tailed Hawks and six Bald Eagles. Almost all birds were high, as is common on light winds.

Both Red and White-winged Crossbills were again seen from the platform. The bird pictured above is a female White-winged Crossbill, photographed there today.