Same diversity, three times as many birds

It was a very pleasant day at the hawk watch today, with the same fifteen species on the tally as yesterday, but in much higher numbers. Three times as many Sharp-shinned Hawks today as yesterday, and the vast majority of them zipping by low and close. Yesterday, many birds remained distant and were probably best viewed from the eastern side of the Point. Today, with SE winds, birds were right overhead, like this adult Broad-winged Hawk.

Still no 'big push' of broadwings but smaller 'kettles' were seen on the horizon and a few birds casually came in for better views. Total number of broadwings counted today was 60, similar to yesterday's count. Other counts included 15 Turkey Vultures, 3 Osprey, 2 Bald Eagles, 19 Northern Harriers, 1,324 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 4 Cooper's Hawks, 1 juvenile Northern Goshawk, 1 juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk, 41 Red-tailed Hawks, 30 Rough-legged Hawks, 1 Golden Eagle, 24 American Kestrels, 3 Merlins and 1 adult Peregrine Falcon.

With the snow on the ground melting quickly now, it was evidently a great day for 'big white birds' on the move, because the first hour of the count had a flyby Snowy Owl and Caspian Tern, while later in the morning I saw three American White Pelicans. After that, I sort of expected to see a Great Egret or at least a Glaucous Gull, but didn't...

Other sightings included 73 Yellow-rumped Warblers counted as flyover migrants; a Pine Warbler singing in the tree next to the platform; 3 seen and several heard Evening Grosbeaks; and 17 Common Loon flyovers.

Tomorrow morning should be great, for as long as the rain holds off...

Great variety

Today was the first day this season in which all the regular raptor species were observed as migrants. So that includes Osprey, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, all three falcons, all three accipiters, both eagles, and four buteos - not bad!

At least four Golden Eagles were present at the Point today, although with all that back and forth flying it was quite the challenge to sort out just how many eagles there really were. Four is a conservative number. (Had I applied the count protocol rigorously and left common sense out of the equation momentarily, I probably would have ended up with over 25 Golden Eagles, but that would have been widely off the mark.)

A number of species were represented by just one token member, such as Peregrine Falcon, Merlin, Red-shouldered Hawk, Northern Goshawk and Cooper's Hawk.

Looking ahead, I think this variety and the fact that the flight was good right until the end of the count, is promising for tomorrow, when much better conditions are forecast. Maybe tomorrow's surge in temperatures and southerly winds will finally bring that wave of broadwings... Had 65 of them already today.

Some more broadwings

A few more Broad-winged Hawks today - nine in total - after the first one last Friday. The winds were good, but overall conditions weren't exactly great for hawk migration: another gray day with almost no sun and some light afternoon rain that eventually turned into an actual shower. The Broad-winged Hawk pictured above was high in a gray sky, so not exactly a photo contest winner there.

Again a good sharpie day, in fact twice as good as yesterday, with 813 counted. Other notable sightings included 42 Northern Harriers (still going strong), 1 Northern Goshawk, and 2 Golden Eagles. The total raptor count reached 948, the second best day so far.

This Red Fox walked past the platform a couple of times today. Also seen today were 1 Solitary Sandpiper and 1 Glaucous Gull flyover, possibly the same individual that was seen earlier on the beach between the harbor and the point.

It'll be interesting to see how the rest of the week is going to play out in terms of hawk migration. We're in peak period for many species now, and each day with reasonably good conditions should put at least a few hundred hawks on the tally. Broadwings are fickle creatures, and could show up on any warm front that we get... Weather-wise, Wednesday and Thursday look promising.

Sharpies marching on

A gray and rather uneventful day on the hawk platform today, with sparse sightings here and there of the less numerous species such as Golden Eagle (1), Northern Goshawk (2), Red-shouldered Hawk (1) and Merlin (1), and despite it all a decent flight of Sharp-shinned Hawks. Overall count reached 462 today, the vast majority of them (409) being sharpies. The photo of the bird pictured above was taken today, a sharpie shrugging its shoulders as if to say "hey - we're here now..."

Slow day

After yesterday's impressive hawk flight, I imagined there would be at least some movement under less than ideal conditions, between showers. That did happen early morning, but the flight petered out quickly and never really regained its strength in the afternoon, even though the weather wasn't that bad later on.

There were interesting birds around on Whitefish Point today, as the other WPBO blogs have already highlighted. One of them was this Short-eared Owl, pictured above.

Interesting I thought was the sighting of three Merlins in the first hour of the count, presumably yesterday's leftovers. Other raptors counted today included 3 Turkey Vultures, 1 Osprey, 2 Bald Eagles, 6 Northern Harriers, 13 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 4 Red-tailed Hawks, 4 Rough-legged Hawks, and 7 American Kestrels.

Excellent flight

Finally a day with southerly winds all day! Great to have that coincide with the first day of the annual 'Spring Fling' weekend, for this weather produced an excellent flight.

Sharp-shinned Hawks dominated the flight, with 1316 counted, effectively more than doubling the season count for that species. Northern Harrier (adult male pictured below) also did very well, with 99, as did Merlin, with 11. Falcons were well represented overall with an adult Peregrine Falcon and 54 American Kestrels. Cooper's Hawk did very well with 12, a record day count in recent memory. Seven of these 12 Cooper's Hawks came by in the afternoon between 1 and 2 PM.

Other raptors counted today included 22 Turkey Vultures, 1 Osprey, 6 Bald Eagles, 4 Northern Goshawks, 48 Red-tailed Hawks, 78 Rough-legged Hawks, and 4 Golden Eagles.

Oh - and a Broad-winged Hawk! Finally had one. There should be a lot more to follow soon...

There's always tomorrow...

Hawk migration: it's all about the weather. Today was certainly an improvement over recent days, but ultimately a disappointment, as those promised southerly winds didn't happen until very near the end of today's count. So still no broadwings, and curiously also no Ospreys today. What did we get? Well, 5 Golden Eagles is nothing to sneeze at, and it was also nice to get three falcon species, including an adult and immature Peregrine Falcon, flying side by side.

From late morning onwards, Red-tailed Hawks made numerous failed attempts at crossing. For a while, it seemed as if there were huge numbers of redtails moving through, but I believe that to be an optical illusion, created by the same hundred or so redtails over and over again. I counted a maximum of 112 in the air at the same time.

Among them two dark morphs, possibly the same individuals that have been on Whitefish Point for nearly a week now. I've seen three different dark redtails this week. The one with the wing damage wasn't seen again today, so that bird has probably moved on.

Like the bird with the damaged secondary that I posted a photo of two days ago, this bird is an intermediate morph: not completely dark, but with a rufous breast, some rufous lining to the underwing coverts, and barred undertail coverts. It's a neat-looking bird.

Day total 'only' got to 345, with 16 Turkey Vultures, 4 Bald Eagles, 21 Northern Harriers, 120 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 2 Northern Goshawks, 112 Red-tailed Hawks, 54 Rough-legged Hawks, 5 Golden Eagles, 7 American Kestrels, 1 Merlin and 2 Peregine Falcons.

An interesting sighting was an early Indigo Bunting flyover.

I thought that today was going to be one of two really big days. I even started an hour earlier, but soon found out that was quite unnecessary. Today, the flight didn't really get going until the afternoon. Tomorrow, though, should be very good, unless of course the weather again plays out quite different from the forecast.