Today was the first day we conducted a HawkWatch at Havre De Grace to see if large
numbers of Broad-winged Hawks follow the coastline of the Chesapeake Bay as they
migrate south. Between 8:30 am and noon only seven BWs were seen. By the 2 o'clock
hour we began to see kettles of over 100 birds, and just after 3:00 pm 570 BWs were
counted in several loosely connected kettles!! At 5:03 pm a kettle of 110 hawks were
seen as we ended our day.
We observed all this from the Lockhouse Museum located just south of the Rt 40 bridge
along the shore of the Susquehanna River. Most of the Broad-wings were crossing over
the river where the Susqehanna meets the Chesapeake Bay. A strong NW wind with gusts
up to 27 mph affected the flight greatly. Almost all the birds were so high that we would
not have seen them if large, scattered clouds were not present.
There were so many local Bald Eagles and Osprey that we only counted the ones that
were flying with the BWs as migrants.
We will be at the HawkWatch on Sunday the 16th to conduct our second days count.
TOTALS - HAVRE DE GRACE HAWKWATCH - 9/15/2007
Broad-wings - 1,430
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 12
Osprey - 16
Bald Eagle - 9
Kestral - 5
Coopers Hawk - 1
Merlin - 1
Jim Meyers |