Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 16, 2025 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 06:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 9.78 hours
Official Counter: AB
Observers: Bob Astleford, Chad Schwartz, Cynthia Berger, Dan, Doug Burton, Ed Sinkler, John Leskosky, Sam Arnold, Shelly Culbertson , Travis Rennig
Visitors: Lisa and Dan were up early and waiting in the parking lot to see some of the superb BW migration we have been experiencing this season. Cynthia Berger arrived in the morning as well and kindly brought me a fresh supply of wonderful veggies from her garden. I was happy she got to see our first large kettles of the day coming in from the N side of the ridge. Doug Burton and his golfing buddy Ed Sinkler joined us next and were great help spotting the large kettles that were forming during the peak of the flight in the afternoon. I wanted to thank Dan for coming back up and scanning after walking Lisa down as he found us our largest kettle of 11:00 hour when we thought the flight was in a lull. Travis Rennig saw the numbers on HC during the afternoon and left work early. I am happy he was able to make it up as he kept the momentum going and helped count some of the large kettles streaming out over Lehigh Valley. He also brought up another owl decoy in case we needed one, but BG is still up to the task for now. Kim and her friend Cass were up in the afternoon and saw some of our largest kettles of the day. My wife Shelly Culbertson joined us late in the afternoon and got to see several large kettles of streaming BW’s. She later locked in and started picking off AK’s and SS’s that were trying to slip by undetected. We were later joined by legendary hawk watchers Hazelton John Leskosky and Bob Astleford. John is whom I have to thank for helping me secure this wonderful perch during a superb BW season. Bob Astleford picked out multiple accipiters before locating the last large kettle of the day. His keen eyes are what kept the momentum going late in the day as I was waning. Hazelton John located our one and only RS of the day that I originally wrote of as another BW. To close out the day Chad Schwartz and Sam Arnold came up to help add a dozen or more birds, mostly accipiters and small falcons to the count. Sam was the lead counter in 2022 and is working on a master’s project on the habitat preferences of GBHE. He is in the area this fall so I’m looking forward to putting in some more time with him as the season unfolds.
31 hikers
Weather: A wonderful cool and cloudy day on Blue Mountain. Winds were primarily out of the east at 4-7 mph occasionally gusting to 8-12mph. Visibility was limited due to a haze in the Lehigh Valley for most of the count at 20 miles. Mostly cloudy skies for the entire count made for superb spotting conditions. Low temperature of 16C at 08:00 and a high of 23C by 11:00.
Raptor Observations: South Lookout
10.5 hours (271.52)
BV 2 (88) TV 12 (406) OS 4 (116) BE 12 (163) NH 1 (11) SS 57 (229) CH 6 (45) RS 1 (6) BW 2264 (12083) RT 2 (98) AK 5 (43) ML 1 (23) UR 5 (57) Total 2372 (13374)
BAEA (12): 09:41 I, 10:05 A, 11:00 I, 11:51 I, 12:23 A, 12:24 A, 12:30 A, 12:30 I, 12:37 A, 13:54 I, 15:04 I, 16:18 I
Another excellent flight of BW’s migrated past Bake Oven Knob. The first large kettle of 191 BW’s was spotted at 09:58 out over the N side of the ridge. This group surprised me as they just kept building in from below before moving over the 5 – 4 – 3 before streaming out over head. The 10:00 hour saw a lull in BW activity, but 5 other species of raptor migrated through with a nice showing of SS’s. The 11:00 hour saw another surge of BW’s with 457 coming through with SS’s continuing in good numbers as well. The peak of the flight was in the noon hour with six different large kettles moving through. The largest numbered 308 at 12:36. Multiple BE’s came through in this hour as well. The 13:00 hour saw a lull in BW activity, however the accipiter flight continued to build with 10 SS’s and a CH moving through. We also picked up the only NOHA of the day trying to slip by undetected. The last kettle of BW’s came through at 15:12 numbering 60 birds.
The resident immature RT was spotted kiting over the bowl at 11:12. Later in the afternoon it was spotted hawking insects directly to the S of the OP and quite high above the ridge top.
Non-raptor Observations: First flock of Cobra Chickens (CANG) of the season streaming through Lehigh Gap S into Lehigh Valley. The winds made songbird detections difficult.
Canada Goose 18 Chimney Swift 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Pileated Woodpecker 2 Northern Flicker 1 Blue Jay 1 Common Raven 2 Black-capped Chickadee 2 Tree Swallow 15 Carolina Wren 1 Cedar Waxwing 20 American Goldfinch 1 Black-throated Green Warbler 1 Scarlet Tanager 1
Predictions: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 11am and 1pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 67. Northeast wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Adam Richardson (<poecile.gambeli...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
