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
NORTHERN GOSHAWK 0-0-6
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