East winds, mostly cloudy (but broken) skies, and mild seasonal
temperatures are the ideal ingredients for a good hawk count at
Snickers Gap. Today provided all three, and the migration flight did
not disappoint.
The final, official count will be posted later this evening, but the
unofficial count for today was 355 raptors, including 317 Broad-winged
Hawks and small counts of six other species. In addition to all the
migrating hawks, we were visited in the afternoon by a large flock of
Tree Swallows (estimated at 100-200) who joined the usual Chimney
Swifts feeding in the skies above the gap.
The only real surprise of the day was that we struck out completely on
falcons - skunked, zero, nada - not one Kestrel, Merlin, or Peregrine,
though we tried several times to make a distant Swallow into a hoped
for Kestrel....
Thanks to Bob Blakney and Matt Orsie for helping a busy counter keep
track of all the activity.
Mike
D. Michael Reyman
dreyman@xxxxxx
www.reymanphoto.net
