Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 12:00:00 Total observation time: 4.25 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers:
Visitors: None
Weather: SE winds at 12-19kph. Visibility was limited to Warrior’s Ridge due to a haze in Stone Valley. Mostly cloudy skies for the entire count made for excellent spotting conditions. Low temperature of 15C at 08:00 and a high of 22C by noon.
Raptor Observations: OS 2 (82) SS 3 (229) CH 1 (53) BW 3 (1473) ML 1 (10) UB 1 (20) Total 11 (2955)
Any hopes of cracking 3k for the season were quickly dashed by the lackluster flight. Despite this I enjoyed each and every individual that passed by the cut this morning. A favorite sighting of the morning was a MERL low near the blinky cell tower at the base of Leading Ridge. I was able to get on it in the scope and watching the dark mysterious falcon’s wings flapping gracefully like pistons. It made the flight special by flying right up the cut head on before blinking out over the canopy.
I thought perhaps the Leading Ridge BW had found a mate as two soared into view close downhill in the cut at 11:20. However, the one kept climbing higher before peeling out to the NW. The other returned to its forested ridge. Perhaps another day soon it will find its mate for the season. At 11:38 the COHA was again performing its wing display over Stone Valley.
Non-raptor Observations: Another nice pulse of COLO in the morning hours. Several flocks of 12 -15 BLJA’s again migrated past the cut. I have enjoyed hearing a call they make before rallying across the cut or from Leading Ridge onto the Flanks of Tussey Mountain.
Mourning Dove 3 Killdeer 1 Common Loon 12 Double-crested Cormorant 3 Great Blue Heron 2 Black Vulture 2 Turkey Vulture 11 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1 Eastern Phoebe 1 Blue Jay 56 American Crow 1 Common Raven 1 Tufted Titmouse 1 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Eastern Bluebird 2 American Robin 1 Purple Finch 1 Pine Siskin 1 American Goldfinch 4 Field Sparrow 2 Eastern Towhee 2 Brown-headed Cowbird 6 Common Grackle 3 Ovenbird 3 Black-and-white Warbler 1 Palm Warbler 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 2 Black-throated Green Warbler 6
Predictions: Scattered showers, mainly before 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 69. West wind 5 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch information may be found at: tusseymountainspringhawkwatch.org/
