Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6.78 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers:
Visitors: None
Weather: Warm and cloudy morning with light NW winds at 1-5km. By noon the NW winds had picked up to 29-38kph which pretty much killed the flight. Visibility was mostly excellent after the rain last night with good views to Stone Mountain. Mostly cloudy skies to start, but every hour or so they would burn off significantly only to rebuild in 30 minutes as multiple rain and hail squalls blew over Tussey Mountain later in the count. Low temperature of 6C at 11:00 when the hail and thunder blew in. High temperature of 12C at 09:00.
Raptor Observations: Several milestones for the spring count were achieved during the day’s effort. I have now put in 400.97 hours of observation time for the season. I had been looking forward to the 1,000 raptors for the season, but in a couple days I have managed to now cross 2,000 raptors for season. It will be very interesting to see how these final days of the 2025 season pan out.
The early morning start didn’t disappoint with 40 raptors moving through in the first 30 minutes of 08:00 hour. The morning was primarily compromised of BW’s that had likely bedded down in the forest overnight. The morning sun breaking through the clouds occasionally on the BW’s low on Leading Ridge was all-star. Seeing these graceful long distance travelers making their way from Central and South America along the ridges of Tussey Mountain is one of the many gifts of time well spent in the cut. In the second half of this hour, I started to see small kettles of less than 10 individuals out over the fields in Stone Valley near the blinky cell tower. There was a nice pulse of SS’s in this hour too. A lone SA GE was spotted circling out over the gap quite close to the OP. I was lucky this eagle was so close as I had been fixated on tracking sky high BW’s. Having good camouflage helps as this eagle streamed right over the powerline never hesitating like many do when there is lots of traffic in the cut. In the 09:00 hour the BW’s started to get much higher with the buteos being detected high up above leading ridge. I really lucked onto a few groups that had snuck by sky high under a large cumulus cloud to the S of the OP. Fortunately these BW’s then hopscotched over to Tussey Mountain almost directly over the cut so I could get a good count. A memorable close encounter was a BW that flew right through the cut from N to S to join a kettle down at the base of Leading Ridge. Nothing like following the BW’s to where the party is. By 10:00 the flight had started to shut down before the first round of rain, thunder and hail arrived around 13:30. After that I hunkered down at the truck for about 45 minutes before coming out for a second attempt to count between 14:20 and 15:12. I did pick up another RT and BW to close out the day with 201 raptors before another round of rain made its way over Tussey Mountain with associated high winds, cooler temps and thunder.
TUVU were the only resident raptors detected.
Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptor Notes
I’m enjoying seeing HETH on the trail in to the cut. One NOFL was going absolutely bonkers before the weather rolled in. If Crandell doesn’t come back I may have to name that flicker. While the flicker was going berserk there were several BCCH skirmishes behind me in the forest. At one point two were arm’s length away having worn each other out in a bout of fee beeyee. This of course got all the other small passerines interested and the WBNU, DOWO, EAPH and even a RCKI got cued up. Across the cut a BTNW got in on the jam and eventually the first MYWA’s of the season started singing too. Pretty raucous bird party while I was trying to focus on spotting distant BWHA’s.
Common Merganser 4 Mourning Dove 2 Common Loon 2 Double-crested Cormorant 9 Great Blue Heron 1 Turkey Vulture 7 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 2 Eastern Phoebe 1 Blue Jay 1 American Crow 2 Black-capped Chickadee 5 Tufted Titmouse 1 Tree Swallow 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 2 Eastern Bluebird 1 Hermit Thrush 2 American Robin 1 House Finch 2 Purple Finch 5 American Goldfinch 2 Field Sparrow 1 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 1 Eastern Towhee 1 Red-winged Blackbird 1 Brown-headed Cowbird 7 Common Grackle 2 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 2 Black-throated Green Warbler 1
Predictions: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. West wind around 17 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph.
======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch information may be found at: tusseymountainspringhawkwatch.org/
