First good Kipt. flight - new Merlin record

Miliff@aol.com
Fri, 18 Sep 1998 20:06:55 EDT 

Hello all,

I apologize for not posting our hawkwatch season totals earlier, but frankly,
the season has been incredibly slow so far.  The hawkwatch began Aug. 31 (with
110 birds of 5 species).  Due to hot, hazy skies, and winds out of the
Northwest if they've blown at all (unlike Cape May, NW winds are the worst at
Kiptopeke), the count total through yesterday was well below the pace of the
previous three years.  Prior to today, our best days have been 417 (9/13), 355
(9/8), 236 (9/6), 222 (9/5), and 187 (9/9), and the seasonal total was a
paltry 2496.  The highlight thus far have been the three Swainson's Hawks - a
light morph juv. 9/10, a dark morph juv. 9/13, and the same dark morph juv.
fying with a light morph juv. the next day.  Totals for the previous years of
full-time counts have been 6 (1995), 4 (1996), 2 (1997).  Cape May had a small
rash of sightings on the same period, and certainly some of our individuals
were preciously counted at Cape May. 

Today however, constant E winds, a low cloud layer, and abundant help (5
observers from noon on - Bob Rineer, Ned Brinkley, Jerry Walker, Jack Dozier)
helped to give us our best day yet.  The unquestionable highlight was a new
Kiptopeke record (previous best 245 in 1997) of 462 Merlins!  Starting at 8:00
a.m. (people time), the hourly Merlin totals went: 3, 6, 9, 18, 57, 66, 37,
59, 91, 91, 25.  The Hawk Bander (Jamie Cameron) also banded a station record
of 51 individuas, and we have yet to hear a report of how another bander fared
to the south on Fisherman's Island.  In any event, we surely demolished the
one-day Kipt. record of 58 Merlins in a day.  Totals for other species were as
follows:  TV (10), OS (88), BE (2), NH (52), SS (142), CH (10), RS (1), BW
(21), RT (4), AK (314), PG (13), UA (3), UB (1), Total (1123).

Our seasonal totals to date are these:
BV - 6	
TV - 13	
OS - 573
BE - 11	
NH - 210
SS - 278
CH - 36	
NG - 0	
RS - 3	
BW - 288
SW - 3	
RT - 32	
RL - 0
GE - 0
AK - 1255
ML - 645
PG - 27
UB - 3
UA - 4
Total - 3387

Hoping for more good conditions over the weekend.  

Best wishes,

Marshall Iliff
Kiptopeke Hawk counter - Fall 1998
miliff@aol.com
Cape Charles, VA