Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 18:00:00 Total observation time: 10.17 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers: NB
Visitors: George Young was up bright and early and picked a swell day to experience migration. He was great company as always and put me on several of the day’s birds.
George Young 1 hiker
Weather: Strong SE winds for the entire count at 29-38kph. Visibility was excellent for the entire count to Stone Mountain. Mostly cloudy skies for the entire day made for excellent spotting conditions. Low temperature of 11C at 08:20 and a high of 24C at 13:00.
Raptor Observations: OS 16 (72) BE 8 (114) NH 4 (40) SS 24 (217) CH 5 (47) RS 1 (42) BW 113 (1440) RT 28 (308) AK 5 (68) ML 2 (9) UR 1 (40) Total 207 (2862)
The flight got underway in the 10:00 hour with BW’s beginning to surge along the ridge top. SS’s and OS got moving as well. A memorable OS came through at the close of this hour as it had packed a lunch possibly from Lake Perez of what looked like a nice trout. Good on the OS for planning ahead when lighting out for new territory. Brief lull in the following hour then in the noon hour the flight picked up again with excellent diversity. The flight was steady from noon on and then peaked in the 15:00 – 17:00 hours. The raptors were really pounding the same line which made getting on them easier. The 16:00 hour saw a total of 9 species of migrating raptor which may be one of the most diverse hours of the season. Nick peeled out at 16:30 with the threat of rain and thunder looming. However, as the official counter at Tussey Mountain the protocol dictates I stay until I can hear the tower snap and the lines sizzle before I can leave my post. Fortunately, other than a few droplets on the tablet rain and thunder never did form and I picked up an excellent pulse of birds in the 17:00 hour to close out a stellar day.
Resident RT’s on Leading Ridge and Warrior’s Ridge during the count. At 09:57 the Leading Ridge BW got into an incredible skirmish with one of its kind over Leading Ridge. Pretty impressive as I have yet to see BW’s dogfight. At 15:39 a COHA was performing its display flight near Stone Mountain. Towards the end of the 16:00 hour a resident SSHA was gliding to the S of the cut before moving S along the ridge.
Non-raptor Observations: Nice pulse of COLO in the morning. The usual band of trouble makers made visits to the forest near the OP. EATO getting his hop scratch on, BAWW singing briefly and of course BNWA singing later in the day.
Canada Goose 2 Mourning Dove 3 Ring-billed Gull 3 Common Loon 5 Double-crested Cormorant 54 Great Blue Heron 2 Black Vulture 3 Turkey Vulture 8 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1 Blue-headed Vireo 1 Common Raven 1 Black-capped Chickadee 3 Tree Swallow 1 Barn Swallow 1 American Goldfinch 15 Field Sparrow 1 Eastern Towhee 3 Brown-headed Cowbird 3 Black-and-white Warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1 Black-throated Green Warbler 2
1 helium balloon
Predictions: Sunny, with a high near 70. West wind around 7 mph.
======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch information may be found at: tusseymountainspringhawkwatch.org/
