Raptors: An unexpected push of 44 Bald Eagles was rather nice to see. It was quite interesting the way they crossed the straits. Most migrant Bald Eagles at hawk watches are direct in their flight and usually not accompanied by more than one eagle in the same field of view when crossing the hawk counting site location. Today several groups of 6-8 Bald Eagles ‘kettled up’ in the NW or N and then streamed across the straits closely together, as if they were Turkey Vultures streaming overhead. Very neat to see! Apart from the Bald Eagle show there wasn’t too much else going on, although 14 Sharp-shinned Hawks was a nice number for an early season southerly wind day.
Non-raptors: Pretty slow in this category. 2 Eastern Kingbirds, 9 Pine Siskins, and 72 American Goldfinches were most interesting.
Monarchs: 155 were recorded today. Although this number is significantly down from the past few days, it is back to the numbers that were pre-north winds/a cold front. So they may very well get back up in huge numbers with the next cold front/north winds.
Best of the next 5 days: Each of the next 5 days has a prediction of 20% or more of rain, with 4 of the 5 days having a chance of thunderstorms. Whatever day(s) it ends up not raining, particularly between 10-3, will be best.
