Second Annual "Lynn's Birthday Hawkwatch"

The weather was perfect this morning for migrating birds - a cold front came through last night. The wind was out of the northwest all morning, shifting to west during the afternoon. Winds were generally light, from 5 to 10 mph, with gusts up to 15mph. The temperature rose from 55 degrees F at 9am to 65 at 3:30pm. Humidity was low, between 37 and 41%.


Our work table. Field guides, notebook, raptor chart, camera, ... and coffee.


A beautiful patch of sky. Hawks show up as black dots against the clouds, which makes them marginally easier to detect than against the blue. Clouds also serve as reference points, as in - to the right of the wispy edge, or below the long thin cloud.


Tom watching for kettles of Broad-winged Hawks and Lynn checking to see what other hawkwatchers are reporting.

Very tired now after 6 1/2 hours of hawk-watching - will fill in the list later :-)
Highlights were 1738 Broad-winged Hawks and 123 Chimney Swifts and two Bald Eagles.

Back again on Saturday morning - with the numbers from the hawkwatch and a bird list for the week. Most "real" hawk-watches count only truly migrating birds - for example the Osprey cruising high overhead in a southwesterly direction and not the Osprey flying over the treetops carrying a fish. Here we have included every bird that we saw, regardless of its residential status.

9:20am to 3:45pm Friday, September 16, 2011 - Yale West Campus, Orange, CT, USA. This is the list we submitted to e-bird, for a total of 34 species.

Turkey Vulture 4

Osprey 17

Bald Eagle 2

Sharp-shinned Hawk 33

Cooper's Hawk 6

Accipiter species 22

Red-shouldered Hawk 6

Broad-winged Hawk 1738

Red-tailed Hawk 7

Buteo species 26

American Kestrel 6

Merlin 1

Falco species 1

Ring-billed Gull 1

Herring Gull 6

Rock Pigeon 12

Mourning Dove 18

Chimney Swift 123

Ruby-thrtd Humbrd 5

Red-bellied Wdpkr 1

Northern Flicker 3

Eastern Wood-pewee 1

Empidonax sp. 1

Red-eyed Vireo 1

Blue Jay 20

American Crow 4

Tree Swallow 1

Barn Swallow 5

Blck-cap'd Chickadee 3

American Robin 3

Gray Catbird 2

European Starling 54

Cedar Waxwing 10

Magnolia Warbler 2

Red-winged Blckbrd 3

Common Grackle 3

House Finch 3

American Goldfinch 4

Ebird seems to not count those we listed as Genus sp., but I will include the Empidonax, since it was unique, bringing our day total to 35.

And now the additional species for the week - which includes the regulars, such as our Wild Turkeys and some migrating warblers!

Wild Turkey

Belted Kingfisher

Killdeer

Downy Woodpecker

Fish Crow

Northern Mockingbird

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Northern Parula Warbler

Northern Cardinal

Song Sparrow

Brown-headed Cowbird

House Sparrow

The total week's list is forty nine species - a great week for Birding West Campus!

Tom - is there anything else you saw during the week that could bring our total to a nice round number - FIFTY!??