Started on Sandy Hook

This week I started the migration watch on Sandy Hook, NJ. I did this count two years ago, when I exposed myself to what seems in retrospect to have been two months of rain and cold with biting east winds coming right off the Atlantic, and long stretches with no birds. Already I feel like this year is going to be different, because today, on what's only the third day of the count, I was able to be on the platform in T-shirt. And there were even some birds to be seen, like this rather pale Red-tailed Hawk.

Best bird today was this immature Bald Eagle. These days a fairly common sight at many hawk watches, but for the Hook still a pretty good bird. Seasonal totals here run between 10 and 20 for this species.

Accipiters (like this Cooper's Hawk) are more numerous at this site.

This is the time for Red-shouldered Hawks to migrate through. Sandy Hook being a peninsular site, many buteos of course don't make the crossing. Today I did see a few going high enough for a serious attempt.

Interesting non-hawks this week included an Iceland Gull on the North Beach and an immature male Common Eider on the bay side, across from the bird observatory's office. Northern Gannets are curiously absent.

Snow in Inwood

Here's "Appie", a Ring-billed Gull with an auxiliary marker (APP) photographed today in a little bay on the East River at Inwood Hill Park, in northern Manhattan. I reported it to the Patuxent Wildlife Center, and will let you know when I hear back from them where this bird was banded.

Snow all day yesterday and blue skies today made for a photogenic walk in the park this morning. It may not be obvious, but this is in Manhattan!

As everybody knows, these days you can see many raptors of various species in New York City. There's Peregrine Falcons on the city's bridges and skyscrapers, American Kestrels all over the city (saw one on 14th St between 6th and 7th Ave today), sometimes in winter a Bald Eagle over the Hudson, several Cooper's Hawks in various city parks, and of course the resident Red-tailed Hawks. Pale Male is only the most famous, certainly not the only, redtail breeding in the city. For years, Inwood Hill Park has had a breeding pair, and this morning one of these birds perched briefly in a tree overhead. As real urbanites, they have become so habituated to humans that they can be approached quite closely.

South winds

Today’s south winds brought warm weather to Michigan, with areas hitting 70F here and there. At Whitefish Point, that translates into higher 40s, and a bit more birds around. Cool birds today included three Evening Grosbeaks (a male and two females), a Hoary Redpoll mixed in with thirty or so Commons, and seven Bohemian Waxwings.

Raptor migration was a little better than yesterday, but not epic. Frankly, I had expected a better showing given those warm south winds, but two Northern Goshawks (one immature female and one adult male, pictured above), a sub-adult Golden Eagle (pictured below), 13 Bald Eagles, 3 adult male Sharp-shinned Hawks, an adult Red-shouldered Hawk and an adult Red-tailed Hawk (pictured top) were all for migrating raptors today.