Fort Smallwood's Best Day Ever

Sue Ricciardi (susie@idsonline.com)
Fri, 16 Apr 1999 20:15:57 -0400


Fort Smallwood is located on the western shore of the
Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Patapsco River,
about 11 miles south of Baltimore, MD.  All numbers
are unofficial.

Fort Smallwood had its best day ever today, 4/16,
with a total of 2630 birds! This is nearly double
the previous high of 1457 on 4/26/85. The main
"culprits" were Broad-winged Hawks which totaled
1897, with 842 coming by in the 11-12 hour, and
712 from 12 to 1. This is an amazing total
considering that the previous high of Broad-wings
was 574 (on 4/16/95). Perhaps the several days of
strong winds with a westerly component pushed
Broadies away from the ridges and toward the
coast. Then, maybe they were just low enough to
see today. Even without the BW's, we would have
had a super day with over 700 birds, including
367 Sharpies. This follows another great day of
618 on Wednesday, 4/14.

4/16/99 SEASON TOTAL
BV     7                187
TV     66             2655
OS     97              373
BE                           9
NH     29              100
SS     367            1511
CH     60              327
NG                           1
RS       7                199
BW    1897          2252
RT       17               201
AK     72                722
ML     10                  38
UNID     1                17
TOTAL 2630        8592