Raptor Observations: BE- 22 ( 13I, 9A ) A fun and exciting early September day of hawk watching on Coon today ! A sweat filled hike into the ridge in moist, humid air gave way to clearing skies and cool northwest winds once we topped out on the ridge. Steady movement of raptors throughout the day kept things interesting. At one point we had 5 different species of raptors in one field of view. ( PG, NH, RT, BE, BW ) Nice raptor diversity today with 9 species tallied. Our Bird(s) of the Day selection goes to the immature Peregrine and a Gray Ghost that were dogfighting off ridge on the river side. The peregrine was relentless in it's attack forcing the harrier to do at least 4 barrel rolls with talons exposed as the peregrine zipped by contemplating it's next move. The harrier finally got out of harms way and quickly moved down ridge but the peregrine apparently still had a lot of fight left in it and immediately attacked a local redtail, and than a Broadwing, and than a Bald Eagle before it finally moved up ridge. This bird was not counted as migrating today. We also had many Bald Eagles and Redtails that were not counted today. Lot's of great action today !!!
Non-raptor Observations: Red Headed Woodpecker - 1 ( adult) RT HUMMER- 26 !!!!! Monarch - 17 TV's & BV's Ravens- 9 Cedar Waxwing- Many Chimney Swift- Many Tiger Swallowtail & Black Swallowtail ======================================================================== Report submitted by Jim Thomson (<hawkinflight...>)
