Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch: Week 5

Let’s count some hawks! After yet another rain-out on the first day of the week, the weather finally turned in our favor. Birds that had been clearly backed up for a week or more were on the move. Our new high count day for the season came on 4/13 with 686 hawks, which included a nice push of Ospreys, Northern Harriers, and Broad-winged Hawks. With continued warm days and westerly and southerly winds, more good days of hawkwatching were had throughout the week. Tree Swallow and Double-crested Cormorant numbers are increasing, and we had our first Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers of the season.

Week 5 Totals (current week - total to date – season average) 

BLACK VULTURE  0-0-1

TURKEY VULTURE  86-628-388    

OSPREY 268-320-402

SWALLOW-TAILED KITE 0-0-0   

MISSISSIPPI KITE   0-0-0   

BALD EAGLE 4-36-81

NORTHERN HARRIER 88-126-103

SHARP-SHINNED HAWK 233-290-670

COOPER’S HAWK 9-24-70

AMERICAN GOSHAWK 1-1-6      

RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 5-30-93

BROAD-WINGED HAWK 671-672-1794

SWAINSON’S HAWK 0-0-0

RED-TAILED HAWK 13-48-218

ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK 0-0-0

GOLDEN EAGLE 0-0-0       

AMERICAN KESTREL 224-258-357

MERLIN 10-21-70

PEREGRINE FALCON 0-2-6

UNIDENTIFIED RAPTOR 28-33-47          

TOTAL 1640-2489-4309