We started with a breeze a nice stiff breeze but from the west south
west
never a good direction for hawks at Smith Point. But the swallows
approved
and went by in decent numbers. We count swallows for the first 10 minutes
of
every hour then multiply by 6. If we counted all the swallows individually
we
wouldn't have time for anything else. 8-9am 3324, swallows mostly Barn
and
Cliff 9-10, 2004 swallows more Cliff than Barn. 10-11 1092, mostly
Barn. We
quit counting at 11 because, like hawks swallows will go high in the
middle
of the day.
We had some good eyes on the tower today. Peggy Boston was in
charge of
keeping track of non raptors, but also did a good job of finding hawks
and
Sue Fennewold, who has only been birding for two years, joined us and she
has
great eyes. Sue hadn't been to a hawk watch before and commented that
she
didn't know what to expect, but said she hadn't expected to spend the
day
searching for specks in the sky. Yes, we spent the day searching for
specks
and found a few nice ones.
8/27/99
5 Swallow-tailed Kites
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
4 Cooper's Hawks
1 Red-shouldered Hawk
1 Broad-winged Hawk
3 Swainson's Hawk
3 Red-tailed Hawks
1 Ferruginous Hawk (seems early to me)
5 ? raptors ( very small specks)
Winnie Burkett
Hawk Watch Coordinator
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