Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 5.25 hours
Official Counter: Daena Ford
Observers: Carol Dunn, Joe DeMars, Jonah Dean, Mike Tetlow
Visitors: 2
Weather: Cooler morning and day overall. Mostly sunny skies with very light winds, which started from the south but ended up going east for most of the flight.
Raptor Observations: The season total surpassed 4,000 raptors today - a first since this count began in 2019.
Highlight of the day was a LEUCISTIC RED-TAILED HAWK, an almost pure white bird! It took us by surprise as it appeared lower than most of the red-tails we were counting, over the field to the left of the platform. A few quick photos were snapped before it flew south towards the parkway and over the salt dome at the highway department.
A juvenile Cooper's Hawk perched for a bit at the edge of that same field earlier in the day. We had 2 Cooper's Hawks and 1 Northern Harrier that moved through today, in addition to the Red-tails and handful of Broad-wings. Only 2 Bald Eagles today. Local Osprey continue.
Non-raptor Observations: Belted Kingfisher was nice to see.
Predictions: Conditions look favorable tomorrow with south winds and warming temps. Winds are light though, and hopefully a lake breeze will hold off. Storms are predicted to pop up later in the day, so could get exciting (hopefully in a good way!). ======================================================================== Report submitted by Daena D. Ford (<dford...>) Braddock Bay information may be found at: http://www.bbrr.org/
