Keweenaw Raptor Survey

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!

…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

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

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

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

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

Howdy folks,

Sorry there hasn’t been an update in the last few days, but after the mega-flight on May 1st, the action on the mountain has been a bit slow. There have been a couple more SWAINSON’S HAWKS, including this bird photographed by Vic Beradi.

Swainson's Hawk by Vic Beradi

Also the Keweenaw’s Migratory Bird Festival in Copper Harbor is kicking off tomorrow evening and will run for the next three weekends with guided walks, evening programs and other events.

For more details please visit

http://www.keweenawimbd.org/

After a couple big days of birds headed east, it wasn’t surprising that there was a big push west shortly after. 451 Broad-winged Hawks headed west today, most in the 3rd hour (11-12). Most of the birds were very high; nothing like counting specks!

Other than Broad-wings, numbers were pretty low overall: 24 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 7 Bald Eagles, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, and one each of Northern Goshawk, American Kestrel and Rough-legged Hawk.

Other sightings on the hill include the FOY White-crowned Sparrow, a couple Yellow-rumped Warblers, Horned Lark and Red Admiral.

Max

Red Admiral

Howdy folks,

Here is todays Brockway report from Joe Youngman- sounds like a cool day on the Mnt.

Heya,

I was the substitute counter at Brockway Mtn today.   The first part of the day was really happenin – then the south wind died and so did the action.  Approx. totals were 556 Broadwings and 49 Sharpshins – thats eastbounders.  It was very intense for a couple hours.   Also had a single Swainson’s Hawk come by going east – the same bird (apparently) passed back west 15 minutes later.   Two more oddities graced the day – we all (a gang of 25ish birders) heard the local raven giving its traditional Golden Eagle attack call – so we look and see an approaching Snowy Owl – I’ve seen alot of Snowies and this was the whitest I’ve ever seen.  It flew right over us going east with its Raven escort -  somehow no one got photos.   A while later we had an immature Redtail  -  with jesses!   Jesses are the leather strap thingyes that falconers put on their birds legs.   Two of us got good scope looks at the thin leather straps hanging from each leg.  If its your bird,   last seen going toward Eagle Harbor – .