Today started with a bang but sadly fizzled out rather quick. The first hour had 229 Broad-winged Hawks go north, but this momentum died by 11:00 AM when it rained for about an hour. After the rain stopped, the only hawks that could be found were seen extremely high to the northeast, barely visible with binoculars and essentially invisible unless they were in front of a cloud. The gusty SW winds seemingly pushed all the birds to the lake shore and none were coming over my head. I can only imagine how many birds passed me by like this, given the good wind conditions. I’m hoping the raptors don’t repeat this again tomorrow, as the wind direction and speed is similar.
In the waterbird department, I once again saw decent sized flocks of migrant Canada Geese. Much less than yesterday, I still had around 130 geese migrating north.
Turkey Vulture – 52
Bald Eagle – 3
Broad-winged Hawk – 340
Red-tailed Hawk – 8
Merlin – 1
Common Loon – 1
