Backyard Hawk Watch (est. 1992), Fall 1999 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 between 3-5 acres on top of the ridge. My hawkwatch site is about 150 yards west of 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) Counters: Kevin Graff (Oct. 2nd - 9am-6:30pm) Pete Webb (9:30am-5pm) Steve Sanford (1:10pm-5:20pm) Elliot & Nancy Kirschbaum (1:20pm-2:30pm) (site manned, it depends on the weather, 8am-6:30pm (Oct.), except Mon.-Thurs 8am-2pm) SPECIES 10/02 SEASON 1998 1997 TV+ 7 34 525 362 BV 0 5 49 13 GE 0 0 1 3 BE (6 ad. & 9 imm.) 0 15 22 9 NH 0 9 48 25 SS+ 4 118 260 106 CH 18 57 153 82 NG (male) 0 1 1 2 RS 4 28 108 51 BW+ 1 12,008* 11,782 4,324 RT 0 24 526 339 RL 0 0 7 14 OS+ 1 46 48 20 AK+ 6 69* 64 23 ML 5 16* 15 7 PG 0 1 4 2 SW 0 0 1 n/a UA 0 0 3 4 UB 0 2 3 3 UF 0 0 1 n/a UR 0 1 n/a n/a 46 12,614 13,621 5,338 Non-Raptor 10/02 SEASON 1998 Double-cr. Cormorant 0 1 141 Great Blue Heron 0 1 4 Canada Goose 0 183 2,934 Short-billed Dowitcher 0 9 n/a Laughing Gull 1 1 n/a (new yard list) Ring-billed Gull 3 24 467 Common Nighthawk 0 54 188 Chimney Swift+ 250 907 4,486 Ruby-th. Hummingbird 0 7* 1 Belted Kingfisher 0 1 (male) n/a Downy Woodpecker 0 1 2 Northern Flicker 1 11* 5 Eastern Phoebe 0 2 ? Least Flycatcher 0 1 n/a Eastern Kingbird 0 3 n/a Purple Martin 0 5 n/a Barn Swallow 0 175* 3 Tree Swallow 0 100* 5 N. Rough-winged Swallow 0 35 n/a Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 3 n/a Ruby-crowned Kinglet 0 1 (10/01) 11 Gray Catbird 0 8 ? Am. Robin+ 12 76 866 Blue Jay+ 369 1,583* 576 Cedar Waxwing 0 53* 30 Yellow Warbler 0 1 (imm.) 1 Black-th. Blue Warbler 0 1 (female) n/a Black-and-white Warbler 0 2 n/a Am. Redstart 0 4 n/a Bobolink 0 3 n/a Chipping Sparrow 0 4 ? Song Sparrow 0 8 ? Swamp Sparrow 0 1 n/a Unid. sparrow sp. 0 109 ? Common Grackle 0 53 n/a Am. Goldfinch+ 11 50 50 Scarlet Tanager+ 0 1 (female) n/a Unid. non-raptor sp. 36 310 4,283 (including sparrow) 684 3,786 14,539 (33 species) Butterfly 10/02 SEASON 1998 Monarch+ 268 5,893 7,399 American Lady 1 4 n/a + reported by other observers Weather: am=PC pm=PC :Temp in the mid 70's. Wind shifted alot from W to SW and SWW and back to SWW and SE. Raptor Migration Highlight: A sloooow day today. Cooper's Hawks are picking up. Nice day for 5 Merlin which is high for the day, the previous count was 3 on Sept. 15, 1998. New season record for kestrels and merlins. Non-Raptor Migration Highlight: More Blue Jay are picking up all day with 2, 5, 9, 12, 16, 21, 23, 17, 28, 2, 46, 2, 1, 1, 6, 11, 23, 18, 5, 6, 6, 3, 8, 1, 1, 10, 7, 3, 1, 4, 1, 1, 3, 11, 1, 1, 4, 7, 1, 1, 2, 15, 14, 9, and 1. Butterfly Migration Highlight: Another Am. Lady from the north and drop out of the sky and resting at the butterfly bushes for a while and left for southwest. I'm still working on the unid. butterfly sp. from the last three weeks, and will post it soon. Standard hawk species identifier codes used: TV= Turkey Vulture, BV= Black Vulture, GE= Golden Eagle, BE= Bald Eagle, NH= N. Harrier, SS= Sharp-shinned Hawk, CH= Cooper's Hawk, NG= N. Goshawk, RS= Red-shouldered Hawk, BW= Broad-winged Hawk, RT= Red-tailed Hawk, RL= Rough-legged Hawk, OS= Osprey, AK= Am. Kestrel, ML= Merlin, PG= Peregrine Falcon, SW= Swainson's Hawk, UA= Unidentified Accipiter, UB= Unidentified Buteo, UF= Unidentified Falcon, UR= Unidentified Raptor. Sky codes: S= Sunny, PC= Partly Cloudy, MC= Mostly Cloudy, R= Rain Questions or comments on this report to Kevin Graff at ggraff@erols.com Kevin Graff Baltimore, MD ggraff@erols.com A special thanks to Pete, Steve, Elliot and Nancy to help out today, I was suppose to be camping at Germantown in Philadelphia, but due to some problem for driving.