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 Notes
TV 3 (270) OS 2 (34) NH 2 (32) SS 11 (151) BW 174 (818) RT 2 (249) GE 2
(147) UA 1 (8) UR 2 (35) Total 201 (2002)
GE Sub 08:36, Adult 10:30
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 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
Visitors
None
Next Day Forecast
Mostly cloudy, with a high near 46. West wind around 17 mph, with gusts as
high as 37 mph.
