Weather: Sunny with SE winds when I arrived, shifted to S by 11:00 and cloud cover gradually increased throughout the day. Wind speed was generally 12-18mph with some stronger gusts up to 21 mph. Low of 9.5℃, high of 23℃.
Other migrating raptors include 4 OSPR, 2 BAEA, 14 RTHA, 74 BWHA, 4 SSHA, 1 COHA, 1 NOHA, 9 TUVU, 5 AMKE, and 1 MERL.
At 10:26, I spotted an adult GOEA soaring and gaining elevation on the S side of the ridge. As I was looking at the eagle, a family just happened to walk through at the right time. The eagle was higher than when I initially spotted it, but they were still able to see it with the naked eye as it crossed over the ridge and flew N. As it happens, it was Nolan's (the dad's) birthday, I'm glad he and his family got to see a GOEA today. The second GOEA was a juvenile and came through much more quickly.
Despite great conditions, we were only getting a few raptors every hour in the morning and midday. It wasn't until 15:00 that we had a burst of activity, mainly BWHA which started to trickle in every few minutes until sunset. The other notable sighting today was a MERL which we heard calling first (perhaps in annoyance to our presence) and then spotted going N over the ridge. Our last MERL was over a month ago on March 8th. We also reached 200 RTHA for the season today.
We had a relatively low number of COLO flyovers today with just 7 considering the good conditions. It seems like we hit our big loon day last Thursday.
There were 33 DCCO today between 2 flocks and 3 GBHE, both high counts for season. Passerine flyovers today include 3 TRES, 2 AMRO, 1 PUFI, 1 PISI, 4 AGOL, and 1 COGR.
Predictions: Mostly cloudy with low SW winds in the morning and moderate WSW wind in the afternoon. SW winds won't be as good as today's S wind, but given that the BWHA today were coming through until sunset and that we are getting close to the peak BWHA season, we could see some decent movement tomorrow. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Thomas Filip () Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch information may be found at: tusseymountainspringhawkwatch.org/
