Keweenaw Raptor Survey

The mountain has been showing it’s two very different spring sides this week. Monday and Tuesday were in the 80′s sunny with south winds. In those two days nearly 500 BROAD-WINGED HAWKS (mostly juveniles), several COOPER’S HAWKS, a juvenile DARK MORPH RED-TAILED HAWK, a handful of OSPREY and SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS and a decent push of IMMATURE BALD EAGLES, about 50 in those two days.

Osprey

The last two days have been much cooler, in the 60′s with a cold north wind blowing off the lake. There have still been a few BROAD-WINGS in the last two days, though only around 50 in those two days. Yesterday there was also a push of about 400 CANADA GEESE.

Juvenile Broad-winged Hawk

There is a bit more noisy on the hill recently too. Several CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLERS have set up territories and a MOURNING WARBLER has been singing in the underbrush for the last few days as well. EASTERN BLUEBIRDS and INDIGO BUNTINGS are also singing away from the treetops. The local COMMON RAVENS fledged and the youngsters have been testing their wings on the updraft off the mountain face:

Chestnut-sided Warbler

North winds again today, but they are supposed to start to switch around to the south through the weekend. Just a little over 2 weeks to go in the survey!

Max

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Yesterday on Brockway was the Laurie Binford Memorial. About 30 people came up to the mountain to share their stories and memories of Laurie. Laurie’s Magnum Opus “Birds of the Keweenaw Peninsula” is the definitive work regarding bird records in the Keweenaw.  A great piece about Laurie’s days in California can be found here:

Who Was Who in California Birding

Laurie Binford on Brockway Mountain in 2009. Photo by Joe Kaplan

Winds yesterday were strong out of the south for most of the day. There was a decent push of immature BALD EAGLES throughout the day, primarily 1st year birds. Totals for the day, month and season are below.

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Species            Day's Count    Month Total   Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture                0              0              0
Turkey Vulture              20            193            637
Osprey                       3             15             36
Bald Eagle                  25            116            717
Northern Harrier             1              9            141
Sharp-shinned Hawk          40            870           1546
Cooper's Hawk                0             12             19
Northern Goshawk             0              6             27
Red-shouldered Hawk          0              1              9
Broad-winged Hawk          224           3517           3697
Red-tailed Hawk              5             86            633
Rough-legged Hawk            0             16            122
Golden Eagle                 0              7             31
American Kestrel             1             28             99
Merlin                       2             18             38
Peregrine Falcon             1             11             20
Unknown Accipiter            0              4             20
Unknown Buteo                0             61            108
Unknown Falcon               0              4             10
Unknown Eagle                0              0             16
Unknown Raptor               0              5             16
Swainson's Hawk              0              4              5

Total:                     322           4983           7947
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The Broad-wings that are coming through now are starting to look pretty beat up:

Here are today’s numbers as well as the season totals:

Species            Day's Count    Month Total   Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Turkey Vulture               9            170            614
Osprey                       2             10             31
Bald Eagle                   6             90            691
Northern Harrier             3              8            140
Sharp-shinned Hawk          20            825           1501
Cooper's Hawk                0             12             19
Northern Goshawk             0              6             27
Red-shouldered Hawk          0              1              9
Broad-winged Hawk          143           3249           3429
Red-tailed Hawk              4             79            626
Rough-legged Hawk            0             16            122
Golden Eagle                 0              7             31
American Kestrel             0             26             97
Merlin                       1             15             35
Peregrine Falcon             0             10             19
Unknown Accipiter            0              4             20
Unknown Buteo                1             61            108
Unknown Falcon               0              4             10
Unknown Eagle                0              0             16
Unknown Raptor               0              5             16
Swainson's Hawk              0              4              5

Total:                     189           4602           7566

Jow Youngman is giving a talk tomorrow on the KRS at the Copper Harbor Birding Festival and Zach Gayk will be counting for me again. Weather looks pleasant at least to be on the mountain. I’m not going to try to predict if it’ll be a good flight. Come on up and check it out!

Max

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Yesterday Zach Gayk counted for me. In the last hour of the count he had a juvenile SWAINSON’S HAWK fly through. He also had a GOLDEN EAGLE in the 6th hour. It was another day of northerly winds for Zach. He ended the day with 38 BROAD-WINGED HAWKS, 1 BALD EAGLE, 5 SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS ans 2 RED-TAILED HAWKS.

I was back in the saddle again today. Winds started out from the west which gave a decent early push. But he winds switched around to the north west around noon and things slowed down again. I ended the day with 159 BROAD-WINGED HAWKS, 14 SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS, 11 TURKEY VULTURES and an OSPREY carrying half a fish, below.

Osprey carrying half a fish

Smile for the camera!

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…but it wasn’t on the mountain.

Yesterday (the 16th) morning Zach Gayk found a LARK SPARROW at Bete Gris and followed that up with the second state record of MCCOWN’S LONGSPUR! The count was quickly abandoned for about two hours as Skye and I went to check out these great finds.

Lark Sparrow

McCown's Longspur

The flight was good yesterday while we were counting though. We ended the day with just over 550 BROAD-WINGED HAWKS, 54 SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS, 19 BALD EAGLES, 18 RED-TAILED HAWKS, 6 PEREGRINE FALCONS, 3 COOPER’S HAWKS, 1 dark-morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK, 1 OSPREY and one ugly NORTHERN GOSHAWK, below.

Tail-less Northern Goshawk

Broad-winged Hawk by Skye Haas

More AMERICAN WHIT PELICANS flew through yesterday as well. Warbler and sparrow activity are also picking up on the mountain as well as in the town of Copper Harbor.

American White Pelicans over Brockway

Today started out fairly quickly with SW winds, but as the winds switched to the north, the flight really shut down. The day ended with 137 BROAD-WINGED HAWKS, 16 SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS and a smattering of RED-TAILS, BALD EAGLES, KESTRELS and MERLIN.

And finally, KRS was in the news again. You can read the article here:

Bird tallier gives talk

`Til next time-Max

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Howdy folks,

The count was alright today, about 200 raptors passed by today, mostly BROAD-WINGED HAWKS, but a NORTHERN GOSHAWK and 4 COOPER’S HAWKS was nice to see. Non-raptors were were plentiful and a few species of warblers were heard from the ridge including MYRTLE, PALM, OVENBIRD, NASHVILLE, BLACK-THROATED GREEN, BLACK-THROATED BLUE, and PARULA.

A couple of open-country birds were a bit lost in the forested country of the Keweenaw, but apparently the grassy top of Brockway provided enough of a refugia that a BOBOLINK, 2 BREWER’S BLACKBIRDS and a UPLAND SANDPIPER stopped  by briefly.

~Skye Haas

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It’s been pretty slow the last few days, so here are the seasonal, May and today’s totals:

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Winds were S to SSW all day, around 10 MPH, temps were around 10C and skies were mostly clear. Sounds like a combination for a great flight right?

Well, it didn’t work out that way. There was a good push in the first two hours, which seemed like it was going to build throughout the day. But by the middle of the third hour, not much was moving!

8 Turkey Vultures

10 Bald Eagles

61 Sharp-shinned Hawks

2 Northern Goshawks

129 Broad-winged Hawks

4 Red-tailed Hawks

1 dark morph Rough-legged Hawk

1 American Kestrel

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KRS will be featured this week on Discovering! Buck LaVasseur will be doing a segment about the Keweenaw Raptor Survey this Monday, May 10th.

Tune in to watch
Discovering with Buck LeVasseur

Watch Discovering Mondays at 7:30/6:30 p.m. CT on TV6

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/on_wluc/content.aspx?id=52733

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