Bake Oven Knob 2 miles North of Germansville, Pennsylvania, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 20, 2026 -------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Andre Vu
Observers: Karen Zampell, Pauline Hurley-Kurtz, Pete Kurtz, Scott Keys
Visitors: About 40 visitors today, mostly the penultimate group of Salisbury middle schoolers led by Mr. Byer. The last couple trips unfortunately didn't have many birds, but today's kids came at the peak of the day's movement and got great looks at vultures, sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks, red-tails, and even found us our only merlin of the day. A couple kids were really hoping to see peregrines - if you're reading this, the one I had was my very last bird of the day many hours after you left. Sorry!!!!
Joined in the afternoon by Scott Keys, Pete Kurtz and Pauline Hurley-Kurtz, and Karen Zampell, with whom I shared a lovely conversation about birds, bugs, and plants.
Weather: 53-67 F, clear blue skies, north to northeast wind with gusts up to 16, though petering out by the end of the day.
Raptor Observations: American Goshawk (1): 0840a
Contrary to my understanding of conventional wisdom, the north wind pushed most raptors (but not all, maybe about 70%) on a due southbound flight line rather than pushing them onto the ridge, to the point where I switched to the south lookout after about an hour, and the volume of birds wasn't as high as I'd have expected.
But when quantity is left wanting, quality often prevails, and the first non-vulture of the day was none other than a big fat stunner of an ADULT GOSHAWK! Since this was my lifer, I thought I would again include an ebird checklist with details about my observation: https://ebird.org/checklist/S404112697
Non-raptor Observations: Pine siskin flight calls were present throughout the day, though I was only able to actually find one flock in my bins. A few purple finches were also nice. A pair of very brave juncos were feeding on seeds hardly 3 yards away from where I was sitting.
Interesting bugs today - a couple autumn meadowhawks, 3 straggler monarchs after I thought they were done for sure, lots of ladybugs, bronze jumping spiders, and western conifer seed bugs that I've seen around before, but seemed to be out in force today.
Predictions: Sunny, with a high near 65. North wind 5 to 10 mph. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Lehigh Gap Nature Center (<mail...>) Bake Oven Knob information may be found at: www.lgnc.org
