Sunday was our second day of monitoring the Broad-winged Hawk flight at Havre De
Grace. We arrived at 8:30 am, and starting at 9:10 am we began to see 10 to 12 kettles
of BWs over Perry Point. The largest kettle was 170+ BWs at 9:25 am. The hawks gained
altitude quickly and crossed at the mouth of the Susquehanna River in the same manner
as Saturday afternoon. In the 10 o'clock hour we saw 15 kettles or groups of streaming
hawks, with the average size being 35 or so BWs in each. At 10:50 am we recorded our
largest single kettle of 232 hawks. We witnessed a fairly steady flight until 1:00 pm, after
which only small groups were seen at very high altitudes.
With all of our efforts going towards counting the Broad-wings, we only did a casual count
of other raptors, and we certainly missed many!!
On Monday the 17th, we plan on viewing the flight from the southern end of Havre De
Grace, perhaps along the promenade near the Decoy Museum, from 8:30 am until about
noon.
Totals 9/16/2007
Broadwings - 1,758
Bald Eagles - 4 (locals were always in view)
Osprey - 6
Sharpies - 7
Kestral - 2
Coopers - 1
Jim Meyers |