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Subject:

Broad-winged HawkWatch at Federal Hill

From:

James Meyers

Reply-To:

James Meyers

Date:

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:01:24 -0400

This is the first of what may be several days of an exploratory hawk-watch at Federal Hill in downtown Baltimore.  The idea is to see where the Broad-winged Hawks cross the Patapsco River as they fly south along the Interstate 95 corridor.  

I arrived at 8:30 AM and observed no Broadwings until after 10:30 when several kettles formed at not too great a height over towards the Patterson Park area.  These kettles numbered 17, 15, and 46 BWs, and once they began to move off they headed WSW and came right over Federal Hill.  Between 11:00 and 12 noon I saw several  groups streaming in the same direction, the largest numbering 26 BWs.  At 12:30 I watched a kettle form north of Federal Hill over the heart of the city.  Over 125 BWs were in this group, very high and thermalling quickly before moving off, this time in a due west direction.  A beautiful sight even at such a great distance!  Between then and 3:00PM the BWs were extremely high and difficult to see.  

TOTALS
Broadwings - 413
Sharpies - 5
Osprey - 3
B. Eagle - 3
Coopers - 1
Am. Kestrel - 1

Jim Meyers
Parkville MD.