Cromwell Valley Park HawkWatch  -  Wednesday, 9/17/08

After checking the number of Broad-winged Hawks that were counted at watch sites to the north of us on Tuesday, we knew that we could be in for a big day at CVP.  We were not disappointed.  At 10:15 we began to see kettles of BWs rising east of us and moving SW rather quickly.  There were more than a dozen separate kettles ranging in size from 6 birds to 56 birds in the first 90 minutes or so.  After that the BWs were seen north of us and at higher altitudes.  From about 3:00 pm until 5:15 pm at least 7 large streams of BWs were seen very high, right above us and moving SW.  Our tally for the day was 1,019 Broad-winged Hawks. WOW!!

Watch sites to our north were still getting some good numbers today, so we'll be out again on Thursday to see if many more come our way.

Totals - CVP  HawkWatch  - 9/17/08 -  8:30 am until 6:00 pm - 9 observers and several more visitors

Broad-winged Hawk - 1,019
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 34
Coopers Hawk - 4
B. Eagle - 3
Osprey - 18
Am. Kestrel - 9
N. Harrier - 1
Merlin - 1

Jim Meyers
Parkville Md