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) Counter: Kevin Graff (Oct. 6th - 9am-2pm) (site manned, it depends on the weather, 8am-6:30pm (Oct.), except Mon.-Thurs. 8am-2pm) SPECIES 10/07 SEASON 1998 1997 TV+ 5 53 525 362 BV 0 9 49 13 GE 0 0 1 3 BE (7 ad. & 15 imm.) 2 22 22 9 NH 2 19 48 25 SS+ 13 191 260 106 CH 7 122 153 82 NG (male) 0 1 1 2 RS 6 52 108 51 BW+ 4 12,062+ 11,782 4,324 RT 13 50 526 339 RL 0 0 7 14 OS+ 3 81* 48 20 AK+ 2 122* 64 23 ML 2 31* 15 7 PG 0 2 4 2 SW 0 0 1 n/a UA 1 1 3 4 UB 0 3 3 3 UF 0 2 1 n/a UR 0 1 n/a n/a 60 13,004 13,621 5,338 Non-Raptor 10/07 SEASON 1998 Double-cr. Cormorant 42 90 141 Great Blue Heron 0 10* 4 Canada Goose 564 1,826 2,934 Snow Goose 50 50 230 Northern Pintail 0 4 n/a Short-billed Dowitcher 0 9 n/a Common Snipe 0 1 n/a Laughing Gull 0 1 n/a Ring-billed Gull 5 29 467 Common Nighthawk 0 63 188 Chimney Swift+ 69 1,957 4,486 Ruby-th. Hummingbird 0 7* 1 Belted Kingfisher 0 1 (male) n/a Downy Woodpecker 0 1 2 Northern Flicker 0 12* 5 Eastern Phoebe 0 3 ? 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 5 120* 5 N. Rough-winged Swallow 0 35 n/a Red-breasted Nuthatch 0 5 n/a Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2 7 11 Golden-crowned Kinglet 0 2 7 Gray Catbird 0 8 ? Am. Robin+ 0 149 866 Blue Jay+ 164 2,785* 576 Cedar Waxwing 0 53* 30 Red-eyed Vireo 0 1 n/a Nashville Warbler 0 1 n/a 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 13 ? White-throated Sparrow 0 7 63 Swamp Sparrow 0 1 n/a Unid. sparrow sp. 12 136 ? Common Grackle 0 53 n/a Am. Goldfinch+ 3 59* 50 Scarlet Tanager+ 0 1 (female) n/a Unid. non-raptor sp. 8 340 4,283 (including sparrow) 924 8,033 14,539 (33 species) Butterfly 10/06 SEASON 1998 Monarch+ 26 6,564 7,399 American Lady 0 4 n/a 26 6,568 7,399 + reported by other observers Weather: am=PC pm=PC :Temp in the lower 60's. Wind shifted alot from NWW to NW. Windy day. Raptor Migration Highlight: Have reach 13,000th hawks today, which is high in Oct., last fall didn't reach 13,000 until Oct. 30?, 1998. 2 1st year eagles at 10:51am headed SWS. Both Redtail and Sharpies are picking up. Unidentified Accipiter seen at 1:16pm but lost it before id's it again. Non-Raptor Migration Highlight: Season first flock of 50 Snow Geese followed by 37 Canada Geese at 12:19pm headed SE. More Canada Geese but a little low, still need another 1,110 more to reach the season record. Nice flock of 41 Double-crested Cormorant seen at 12:07pm headed SE. Butterfly Migration Highlight: Monarch should be over very 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