I've been wanting to see a good hawk flight this season and today I finally got my wish. When I left the house I had not anticipated/thought of migrating hawks, but on the drive down to Eastern Neck NWR that changed when I counted 9 American Kestrels on the wires along rt. 20 south of Rockhall to just north of the island. I parked just south of the bridge and started to count.
1100-1210 (90% of the hawks were from 1100-1140, and nothing from 1200-1210) Wish I was there earlier.
Bald Eagle- 2-imm, 2- ad
American Kestrel- 1
Osprey- 1
Red-tailed Hawk- 5
Northern Harrier- 10
Sharp-shinned Hawk- 43
Cooper's Hawk- 26
Peregrine Falcon- 5
Turkey Vulture- 45
Black Vulture- 8
Unk Id- 18 (mostly buetos, probably Red-shouldereds and Broad-wings?)
Non-raptor Highlights:
Foster's Tern- 49
Royal Tern -1
Great Horned Owl- 1 (being harassed by Am. Crows north of bridge)
Greater Yellowlegs- 4
Red-throated Loon- 3
I birded parts of the island and at 1300 noticed another push of Hawks, so I drove back to the bridge.
1300-1325 (includes hawks seen while birding on the island)
Sharp-shinned Hawk- 8
Cooper's Hawk -3
Red-tailed Hawk- 1
GOLDEDN EAGLE -1 AD
Unk id- 3
Landing birding around the refuge was good but saw nothing unusual or really anything that has not been recently posted.
Dan Small
Chestertown, MD
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