Today, April 2nd, Bill Williams and I watched as a Turkey Vulture became the
1,000th bird of the season at College Creek Hawkwatch, moments after a
Red-tailed Hawk became 999. The 1,000th bird came on April 11th last year,
when we
set the season record at 1525. In 2005, the 1,000th passed on April 19th.
April is an up-and-down flight month, usually with wetter weather, but we are
on a great pace for the season.
The March total was 730, remarkably, the same as last March. The
February/March total is 929, which compares to 803 for 2006. The season total
stands at
1018.
Today there was a very intense and diverse flight from about 10 to noon
(Daylight Savings Time) and if we had tallied a migrant Bald Eagle, as we
often
do, we would have tied the all-time daily high for species at 11. Totals were
2 Black Vultures, 29 Turkey Vultures, 7 Ospreys, 4 Northern Harriers (in
about 30 minutes), 3 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 2 Cooper's Hawks, 1 Red-shouldered
Hawk, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 American Kestrel and 1 Merlin.
Last year we averaged about 130 birds per week for April and in the first 2
days of April this year we are already at 89.
Brian Taber
College Creek Hawkwatch is a program of Coastal Virginia Wildlife
Observatory and is located on the James River just east of Williamsburg.
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