Fairly cool start to the morning which was welcome after yesterday’s
scorcher. 12-19kph NW winds for most of the count. Visibility was really
good during the entire count with views to Stone Mountain and beyond. I
believe it may have rained a little last night as all the haze was gone
today and the air quality was superb. There were high cirrus clouds for the
entire count which made for excellent spotting conditions. Low temperature
of 9c at 08:40 and a high of 23C at 15:00.
Raptor Notes
TV 1 (279) OS 4 (56) BE 2 (106) SS 2 (193) CH 1 (42) BW 11 (1327) RT 3
(280) Total 24 (2655)
Slow but steady flight with BW’s leading the flight. They would surprise me
throughout the day as they were indeed flying on top of the ridge even in
the NW winds. I got lucky in the 09:00 hour as I hadn’t really been looking
to the NW and caught one naked eye trying to sneak by. I then tracked back
on the flight line it took and picked up 3 others that where in tow
streaming out on the same line. Despite frequent scope scanning over Stone
Valley and Stone Mountain that didn’t yield much.
Resident raptors were mildly active during the count. RT’s out over stone,
BE’s in skirmishes on Warrior’s Ridge and the BW on Leading Ridge.
Non-raptor Notes
There were several BAWW up at the OP this morning. Really enjoyed getting
good looks at them. BGGN made it up for a first of the year too.
Mourning Dove 5
Common Loon 1
Black Vulture 1
Turkey Vulture 5
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 2
American Crow 1
Common Raven 3
Black-capped Chickadee 5
Tufted Titmouse 1
Tree Swallow 3
Barn Swallow 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Northern House Wren 1
Purple Finch 2
Pine Siskin 1
American Goldfinch 8
Field Sparrow 1
Eastern Towhee 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 7
Black-and-white Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Black-throated Green Warbler 6
Visitors
David Stiemling from Wagoners Gap HW was up in the afternoon and helped put
me on several migrating raptors. His timing was perfect as there was
another pulse while he was up and we got to see a few migrants moving N.
David Stiemling
18 hikers
Next Day Forecast
Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm, mainly after 5pm. Mostly
cloudy, with a high near 68. South wind 7 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as
24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a
tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
