Strong NW winds at 20-28kph to start the count, picking up to 29-38kph by
09:00. The NW winds set down significantly by 15:00 to 12-19kph which is
when the flight picked up. Visibility was excellent for the entire count to
Stone Mountain. Mostly cloudy skies kept things cool until 15:00 which
again is when the flight surged. Low temperature of 4C at 08:24 and a high
of 16 by 16:00.
Raptor Notes
TV 6 (265) OS 2 (25) BE 6 (82) NH 3 (25) SS 13 (102) BW 8 (9) RT 7 (224) AK
4 (38) UA 1 (5) UR 5 (26) Total 55 (1035)
Slow but steady flight in the morning hours with 14 migrants moving through
before noon. By noon the winds had subsided a little and it began to warm
up. From noon through 14:00 another 20 migrants moved through. For the
first time this spring the 15:00 hour was the busiest of the day with a
total of 19 migrants coming through. The first good push of BW’s was
detected high out over Happy Valley with 3 streaming in formation together.
During this hour migrants were all spotted streaming so like this past
Wednesday they had gained altitude elsewhere and were already streaming out
by the time we got on them. SS’s peaked during this hour with a total of 5
moving through, sometimes quite high as well. They were significantly
closer to Tussey Mountain than the BW’s. SS’s led the flight with a total
of 13 moving through. Surprisingly the flight shut down promptly in the
16:00 hour with just one SS and UR detected.
Resident raptors were fairly active with both the immature and adult RT’s
kiting in the gap throughout the day.
Non-raptor Notes
Crandall was around this afternoon, but quite subdued compared to
yesterday. He wasn’t mobbing any of the resident raptors.
Canada Goose 1
Mourning Dove 5
Common Loon 10
Double-crested Cormorant 5
Turkey Vulture 5
Red-headed Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
American Crow 3
Common Raven 2
Black-capped Chickadee 6
Tufted Titmouse 1
Tree Swallow 6
Golden-crowned Kinglet 3
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin 1
Purple Finch 1
American Goldfinch 2
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 3
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
Visitors
Jacqui McKee was up in the afternoon and was great help as always spotting
distant small raptors.
Jacqui McKee
18 hikers.
Next Day Forecast
Cloudy, with a high near 60. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph in the
afternoon.
