Great day for hawks at Hitchcock but look down at the bottom under "Non raptor" sightings. WOW! They were flying in small groups throughout most of the day!
Jer Toll Hitchcock Hawkwatch, raptor bander [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: BirdHawk - HMANA Hawk Watching Exchange [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 6:11 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [BIRDHAWK] HSR: Hitchcock Nature Center (27 Oct 2010) 316 Raptors Hitchcock Nature Center Honey Creek, Iowa, USA Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 27, 2010 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total ------------------ ----------- -------------- -------------- Black Vulture 0 0 0 Turkey Vulture 2 1935 4365 Osprey 1 15 181 Bald Eagle 31 231 297 Northern Harrier 6 110 166 Sharp-shinned Hawk 21 399 925 Cooper's Hawk 1 67 225 Northern Goshawk 1 4 5 Red-shouldered Hawk 0 3 4 Broad-winged Hawk 0 11 579 Red-tailed Hawk 243 1619 2065 Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0 Swainson's Hawk 0 461 693 Ferruginous Hawk 0 0 0 Golden Eagle 0 6 6 American Kestrel 1 9 89 Merlin 7 12 52 Peregrine Falcon 1 6 69 Prairie Falcon 0 0 0 Gyrfalcon 0 0 0 Mississippi Kite 0 0 12 Unknown Accipiter 1 2 3 Unknown Buteo 0 0 0 Unknown Falcon 0 1 1 Unknown Eagle 0 0 0 Unknown Raptor 0 6 16 Total: 316 4897 9753 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 16:30:00 Total observation time: 9 hours Official Counter: Ryan Evans Observers: Jason McMeen, Ryan Evans Visitors: Bob Russell Weather: Raptor Observations: Bald Eagle: 21 immature, 7 adult Red-tailed: 6 Harlan's, 2 western dark morph, 1 dark morph, 1 partial albino (back almost completely white) Northern Goshawk: 1 adult Non-raptor Observations: Great Blue Heron: 9 American White Pelican: 70 American Crow: 800 Sandhill Crane: 600 ======================================================================== Report submitted by Mark Orsag ([email protected]) Hitchcock Nature Center Hawkwatch information may be found at: http://www.pottcoconservation.com/html/hitchcock.html Site Description: Hitchcock Nature Center is located in the Loess Hills of western Iowa. The small town of Crescent is immediately southeast of Hitchcock. The watch overlooks the Missouri River Valley, and the skyline of downtown Omaha, Nebraska is easily visible (on clear days) to the southwest. The hawkwatch at Hitchcock Nature Center is now a full-time operation that logs approximately 600-800 hours of coverage and counts an average of 13,000 migrating raptors every fall. Besides recording a diverse raptor/vulture flight of 20 annual or semi-annual species dominated by Turkey Vultures, Bald Eagles, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Swainson's Hawks, and Red-tailed Hawks, Hitchcock's observers track large numbers of other abundant avian migrants ranging from Blue Jays and Red-headed Woodpeckers to Snow Geese and American White Pelicans. Our fall season runs from 15 August to 20 December with the peak period for raptor migration running from approximately 20 September to 20 October. Counts are now conducted daily from the 56-foot hawktower attached to the HNC Lodge between 1 September and 20 December. Counting in August is part-time. Directions to site: >From Omaha NE, take I-680 north to the Crescent Exit. Take Iowa 988 into Crescent. At the "T" junction with Old Lincoln Hwy. (formerly Iowa 183), take a left north and drive for approximately five minutes until you see the Hitchcock Nature Center sign. Take a left at the sign, and drive up the hill. At the top of the hill, take a right. Enter the nature center and follow the signs to the Lodge. >From Council Bluffs IA, take I-29 north and take the Crescent exit. The rest of the directions are as above... BIRDHAWK is sponsored by HMANA. Info, list guidelines: http://www.hmana.org/ List archives,subscription options: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdhawk.html To contact a list owner, email to: [email protected] --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/membership.asp. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
