Mt. Peter Hawk Watch 9/13/14

I did my first shift of the year as counter at Mt. Peter Hawk Watch last Saturday. I didn’t do a blog post because it was uneventful – I counted only 5 migrating hawks in 6 hours of observation. Today was quite a different story. Despite the cloudy and drizzly weather, I surpassed last week’s total in the first 10 minutes of the watch. The highlight was the third hour of the watch, when I had 301 Broad-winged Hawks pass through. To make it even better, the birds were flying relatively low and could be seen easily with the naked eye. I had two large kettles – one with 126 BWHAs and the other with 105. I was so involved with trying to get a good count that I neglected to take any photos. I had one more sizable kettle of 49 birds where I remembered to get the above photo. My total for the day was 337 migrating raptors. All were Broad-winged Hawks with the exception of a single Osprey. Here’s my report, as submitted to HMANA at hawkcount.org:

Mount Peter
Warwick, New York, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 13, 2014
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Species / Day’s Count / Month Total / Season Total
____________________________________________
Black Vulture 0 / 0 / 0
Turkey Vulture 0 / 1 / 1
Osprey 1 / 18 / 18
Bald Eagle 0 / 10 / 10
Northern Harrier 0 / 2 / 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 / 31 / 31
Cooper’s Hawk 0 / 6 / 6
Northern Goshawk 0 / 0 / 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 / 2 / 2
Broad-winged Hawk 336 / 444 / 444
Red-tailed Hawk 0 / 0 / 0
Rough-legged Hawk 0 / 0 / 0
Golden Eagle 0 / 0 / 0
American Kestrel 0 / 13 / 13
Merlin 0 / 2 / 2
Peregrine Falcon 0 / 3 / 3
Unknown Accipiter 0 / 0 / 0
Unknown Buteo 0 / 4 / 4
Unknown Eagle 0 / 0 / 0
Unknown Falcon 0 / 0 / 0
Unknown Raptor 0 / 5 / 5

Total:                337 / 541 / 541
____________________________________________

Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 13:30:00
Total observation time: 5.5 hours

Official Counter: Matt Zeitler

Observers: Carol Linguanti

Visitors:
Visitors included: Karen Miller, Carol Linguanti, Carol Pastushok, and
Grace Woleslagle.
Weather:
Cool and cloudy with a light drizzle beginning in the third hour of the
watch and developing into rain on and off during the last hour and a half
of the watch. Winds were from the East at 10 km/hr and temperatures ranged
from 12 to 15 degrees Celsius.

Raptor Observations:
During the third hour of the watch, 301 Broad-winged Hawks were observed.
Kettles formed to the northeast of the platform and most birds flew
directly over the viewing platform – low for Broad-winged Hawks, all could
be seen easily with the naked eye.

Non-raptor Observations:
Other bird species observed: Northern Cardinal (2), Black-capped Chickadee
(5), Tufted Titmouse (2), Downy Woodpecker (2), American Crow (4), Canada
Goose (3), American Goldfinch (3), Pileated Woodpecker (1), Blue Jay (4),
Chimney Swift (5), Gray Catbird (1), Red-bellied Woodpecker (2),
Black-and-white Warbler (1)

**ONE YEAR AGO ON THIS DATE AT ORANGEBIRDING.COM: American Golden-Plovers in Pine Island.**