Hawkwatch at Mount Peter actually started last weekend for me, but I only spent 3 hours on the mountain and had just a single migrating American Kestrel. So today was my first full day. It used to be that mid September was peak time for Broad-winged Hawk migration, but to me, it seems like in recent years it’s moved to closer to the third week of September. If that holds true, we should be looking for a big day or days at the end of the coming week.
It was hot, like a summer day at Mt. Pete today. In spite of that, there were still some raptors moving through on the light breeze which started from the WNW and eventually shifted to the NE. I had a total of (60) migrating raptors ; most were Broad-winged Hawks, but I did have some variety with an additional five species counted. The highlight for me was picking up young Northern Harrier way out and watching as it steadily migrated over, just west of the viewing platform. As usual, you can find my Hawkcount.org report at the bottom of this post.
