Backyard Hawk Watch (est. 1992), Fall 1998 Site: 3812 White Ave., between Belair Rd. and Walther Ave. - northeast Baltimore City in the Gardenville section. Topography of the Site: The prominent peak in the area is a steep ridge about 180-200' above Belair Rd. and about 260' above sea level. It runs northeast to southwest and is the first ridge west of the Chesapeake Bay. It is about 12 miles from the bay, and is about 5 miles northwest of the head of Back River, an arm of the bay, and about 6 miles north of Baltimore's Inner Harbor. There is a long narrow old-growth of woods about 3+ acres on top of the ridge. My hawkwatch site is about 150 yards west of the ridge. From the west side of the ridge, going west past my site, the topography continues to rise for about 6/10 mile to a height even higher than the ridge. The only road that runs along side of ridge is Fairwood Ave., that connects from White Ave. to Parkmount Ave. The hawkwatch is located in my backyard. Most of the hawk flights arrive from the northeast and a few from the north and northeast-east. Reports: Kevin Graff (ggraff@erols.com) Counter: Kevin Graff (site manned, it depends on the weather, 9am-5pm through Dec. 15th) SPECIES 10/29 SEASON 1997 Turkey Vulture 51 367* new record* 362 Black Vulture 5 43* 13 Golden Eagle 0 1 3 Bald Eagle 1 19* (7 ad. & 12 imm.) 9 N. Harrier 0 45* 25 Sharp-shinned Hawk 14 214* 106 Cooper's Hawk 4 118* 82 N. Goshawk 0 1 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 11 61* new record* 51 Broad-winged Hawk 0 11,782* 4,324 Red-tailed Hawk 70 179 339 Rough-legged Hawk 1 4 13 Osprey 0 48* 20 Am. Kestrel 0 62* 23 Merlin 1 14* 7 Peregrine Falcon 0 3* 2 Swainson's Hawk 0 1 (imm. light phase - 9/16) n/a Unidentified Accipiter 0 3 4 Unidentified Buteo 0 2 3 Unidentified Falcon 0 1 0 Unidentified Raptor 0 0 0 Total: 158 12,968* 5,338 Weather: A nice cold and windy day with strong wind from NW and NWN all day. Raptor Migration Highlight: Another new single day record this month. For the first time in October, I have more than 100 hawks in one day. Including 107 on 10/15/98 and 122 on 10/24/98. For Nov., the highest single day count was 124 on 11/11/97. Interesting birds to see was a 150 yards long stream of 15 Turkey Vultures, 6 and 5 Red-tailed Hawks, 2 Black Vultures, 3 Sharp-shinned Hawks and a Cooper's Hawk. Another interesting birds was a mixed kettle of 5 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Bald Eagle, and a Red-shouldered Hawk. Non-Raptor Migration Highlight: None today. Note: Sorry for the delay, I has to go to play wargame with my dad and some friends after dinner today. Also I will do about 3 hrs. of hawkwatching from 9am to 12pm to get a chance to get 13,000 hawks before I will go to Delaware at lunch time tomorrow to help my grandmother, and will come back on Mon. morning to return to hawkwatching and will do report on Fri. hawks on Mon. night. Questions or comments on this report to Kevin Graff at ggraff@erols.com Kevin Graff Baltimore, MD ggraff@erols.com