It's called Great North Mountain for its size (2800 ft). But today, the
greatest thing up there was its Great North WIND!
BJ and I spent a VERY BLUSTERY day, totally bound up in our winter gear. But it
was well worth it - the hawks were GREAT too! The most enjoyable thing about
that spot is how close many of them are. Being we're on the very top of the
ridge, a lot of them are right overhead. Compared with what we are used to at
Snickers Gap, the viewing is awesome!
All birds but the single Eagle were fiercely fighting the wind, although they
basically had a tailwind. The Eagle cruised along like a stable battleship.
Most birds were following the center or NW side of the ridge, tacking to the
wind but heading SW. A good number of them were so low, and going so fast, that
we could easily have missed them (and undoubtedly, we did miss some). Because
of the wind, the BWs were coming single file - although some tried to kettle,
they usually broke up before our eyes. Given better weather conditions, I'm
sure the BW numbers would be much higher.
Time: 11:00 EST to 3:30 EST.
OS - 15
BE - 1
SS - 11
CH - 1
RS - 1
BW - 513
RT - 1
AK - 2
ML - 5
PG - 2
Total: 552
Other birds:
Great Blue Heron - 5 (all together - headed SE)
CAGO - a few small flocks - also headed SE
Phoebe - 1
Ring-billed Gull - 2
Monarch - 8-10 or so
All in all, another Great day at this heretofore untried spot. We just love it
up there and highly recommend it (albeit, it's a bit hard to get to).
Jon Little
BJ Westervelt
Winchester
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