Today was a great day to be at the hawk watch. It started out a tad cold but once the sun came out it was quite nice. With the sun came a nice barrage of raptors, primarily Red-tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures. It was a pleasure to count today because the birds were moving north pretty steadily without drifting back much, which can be quite frustrating some days when they hesitate to cross and drift all over the place.
Highlights from today: 8 Golden Eagles, 1 first-of-the-season Northern Goshawk, 2 first-of-the-season Broad-winged Hawks, 1 leucistic Red-tailed Hawk who hung around for a long time allowing many nice looks, 2 dark morph Red-tailed Hawks, and at least 4 Northern Red-tailed Hawks.
Turkey Vulture – 203
Osprey – 5
Bald Eagle – 13
Northern Harrier – 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk – 28
Cooper’s Hawk – 1
Northern Goshawk – 1
Red-shouldered Hawk – 3
Broad-winged Hawk – 2
Red-tailed Hawk – 975
Rough-legged Hawk – 9
Golden Eagle – 8
