Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2001 17:03:33 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Matt Hafner Subject: Great Day at Turkey Point MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit My dad and I took a trip down to Turkey Point today hoping that the NW winds would bring in some migrants. We had an excellent day and I'll save the hawk numbers for last. As soon as we entered the first clearing around 7:30am, we noticed large numbers of birds flying overhead. It was mostly Myrtles, both Kinglets, and Blue Jays, lots and lots of Blue Jays. Searching through the flocks, we found Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Magnolia, and Yellow Palm Warblers. Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireos also. A Scarlet Tanager and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker also made an appearance. An adult Red-headed Woodpecker and a Peregrine Falcon flew over. A couple Sharpies scattered the songbirds. At the hawk watch, nice non-raptors included: an immature Red-headed Woodpecker, a Richardson's Goose in a V of Canadas, and MORE Blue Jays. I estimated that over 600 Blue Jays passed overhead today. There were probably more, but I was afraid of double-counting because so many doubled back. Chimney Swifts and Tree Swallows were also present in good numbers. I heard the official counter today was held up at home, and I was planning on counting hawks anyway, so I somehow ended up keeping the official numbers. Raptor Totals: Northern Harrier - 1 Bald Eagle - 3 prob. migrants + 7+ locals Sharp-shinned Hawks - 180 Cooper's Hawks - 16 Northern Goshawk!!! - 2!!! imms. details below Broad-winged Hawk - 6 Red-tailed Hawk - 2 American Kestrel - 54 Merlin - 3 Peregrine Falcon - 1 Accipter sp. 4 Buteo sp. 1 Falcon sp. 3 Sean McCandless reported an additional 3 Merlins and 3 Peregrines on the point while we were at the watch. Northern Goshawks: Everyone was aware that these birds were very early, however, we had spectacular views to identify these birds. The first bird rose powerfully out of the northwest corner and I immediately told everyone to get on the bird because I thought it was a Gos. We then watched it cruise over the treetops to the east side of the field where it crossed towards the point. The look lasted almost a full minute and we observed the hefty size of the bird, the heavily streaked underside, including undertail coverts, and as Parke John mentioned, it flew much stronger than the Sharpies or Coops. The second bird came shooting out of the woods low, barely off the ground. As flew at eye-level, you could see a distinct eyeline and pale mottled back. The bird then rose over the trees quickly and the heavily streaked underside and tail coverts were viewed. Everyone's first impression of that bird was that it was HUGE. I especially thought the neck to be thick and large. These were the best views that anyone present had ever had of Goshawks. Parke thought this might be the first time there's ever been 2 at one day at Turkey Point. Thanks to Parke John, Greg Futral, and someone whose name I can't recollect (sorry) for keeping us company and helping to count hawks. Matt Hafner College Park, MD ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================