It was an excellent flight at Mt. Peter Hawkwatch today. With the help of several visitors and fellow counters Tom Millard, Ken Witkowski, and Rick Hansen, we were able to tally 1,307 migrating raptors for the day. I thought I might have a decent day, maybe even a good day, but this number surpassed my expectations for sure. Highlights included 1,257 Broad-winged Hawks, which flew over mostly in smaller kettles and were not too high up, so we got some decent looks and finding/counting them was not as difficult as it can be. Seven Osprey passed through, and we also a decent Sharp-shinned Hawk flight, with 32 birds. Non-raptor highlights included an impressive Blue Jay flight, that I estimate totaled 600+ birds easily. It may have been closer to 1,000. If we hadn’t been so busy with the raptors, it would have been nice to get an accurate count. Also, probably my favorite bird of the day, Rob Stone and I had COMMON LOON in flight, heading WNW, I’m not sure where that bird was going to or coming from. As usual, I’ve included my Hawkcount.org report at the bottom of this post.
Thank you for your critical updates on Orange County birding. John & I don’t get out very often anymore but your observations and photos are great and timely. Many, many
thanks.
Thanks so much for your comment Mary, it’s comments like yours that make it all worthwhile to me. I’m happy to hear you and John are getting so much out of the blog. Matt