Nature Miramichi

Pam and I joined Todd Watts at the top of the mountain and helped him locate migrating hawks. The weather was great and the winds were very favorable for migrating hawks. So favorable, in fact, that it was the highest hawk count in the 13 years that Todd has been doing this survey – 5,032 birds. Wow! The majority were Broad-winged hawks – 4,930 of them.

What really amazed me was the large numbers of birds and their migrating behaviour. They were forming kettles and towers containing sometimes over 100 birds. Their ability to use the thermal air currents and then stream across the sky with no effort (no wing beats) is really fascinating.

Here are the numbers recorded based on Todd’s report:

Osprey 10
Bald Eagle 18
Northern Harrier 4 (2 unknown, 1 female, 1 male still holding numerous juvenile feathers (presumably a second year bird and probably the most interesting Fall harrier I have ever seen)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 47
Northern Goshawk 1 (immature)
Broad-winged Hawk 4930 (single day record high count)
Red-tailed Hawk 1
American Kestrel 20
Merlin 1
Total 5032 (single day record high count)

More details can be found at https://www.hawkcount.org/day_summary.php?rsite=686&ryear=2021&rmonth=09&rday=14

To learn more about the Greenlaw Mountain Hawk Watch go to: http://www.saintjohnnaturalistsclub.org/GMHW.htm

My gallery of photos is here: https://philriebel.smugmug.com/Private/Trips/Hawk-Watch-September-2021/n-5v2n6f/

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