Hola Birders,
Today an impressive flight of Cedar Waxwings took place across Kiptopeke State
Park. Doing my best to estimate I came up with a count of at least 14,400
birds moving. At first light small flocks of 20 to 30 individuals were moving
past "the gap" at a rate of at around 1 every 5 seconds. This went on for an
hour and more and was accompanied by larger groups occasionally coming straight
over the pines. Even the bird banders noticed today's flight!
The hawks, in comparison didn't budge once again. Today's light to strong
southeast winds, accompanied by a soup like cloud layer were just too much to
combat. At this point in the season hawks are only going to move if they HAVE
to. Warm weather, abundance of small prey items and poor migratory conditions
are just not conducive for us here at the Hawkwatch.
That being said, this is a great time to witness interesting behavior.
Yesterday I had a hatching year Red-shouldered Hawk repeatedly use the platform
as a plucking post for the several Praying Mantis she caught. Several of us got
great close up photos and basically just got a kick out of our new "friend."
Today she hung out with the bird banders. Here's today's break down:
TUVU: 11
NOHA: 2
SSHA: 9
AMKE: 1
PEFA: 1
Total: 24
(Cape May had 18 today. We beat 'em two day's in a row!)
Please check out www.hawkcount.org for more detailed count info for KSP and
your other local hawkwatches. Enjoy!
Good day and good birding,
-Sam
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