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Chestnut Ridge Hawk Watch—2000
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August |
| August totals Osprey - 3 Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 Broad-winged Hawk - 3 Total birds: 7 |
| September There were 27 days of coverage in September. This month brought the bulk of the Osprey, Bald Eagle, Broad-winged Hawk, and American Kestrel migratory movements. The most spectacular of these movements was far and away that of the Broad-winged Hawk, easily this hawkwatch's most abundant species. Of the month's total of 12,591 birds, a full 11,088 were Broad-winged Hawks (just over 88%). |
| September
totals Black Vulture - 4 Turkey Vulture - 13 Osprey - 215 Bald Eagle - 13 Northern Harrier - 34 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 571 Cooper's Hawk - 75 Northern Goshawk - 6 Red-shouldered Hawk - 4 Broad-winged Hawk - 11,088 Red-tailed Hawk - 9 American Kestrel - 344 Merlin - 10 Peregrine Falcon - 6 Unidentified Accipiter - 116 Unidentified Buteo - 5 Unidentified Falcon - 13 Unidentified Raptor - 65 Total birds: 12,591 |
| October There were 28 days of coverage in October, with a total of 3,715 birds recorded. The peak movements for Turkey Vulture, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Merlin and Peregrine Falcon occurred in this month. The reduced total number of birds from September is largely due to the fact that Broad-winged Hawk migration tends to end abruptly in early October in the Westchester county area, and this year was no exception. Even though our second highest day for Broadwings (2,646) was as late as 9/22, only 5 Broadwings were seen from the watch in October, compared with 11,088 the previous month. |
| October totals Black Vulture - 11 Turkey Vulture - 1,345 Osprey - 101 Bald Eagle - 8 Northern Harrier - 47 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1,249 Cooper's Hawk - 238 Northern Goshawk - 5 Red-shouldered Hawk - 45 Broad-winged Hawk - 5 Red-tailed Hawk - 240 Rough-legged Hawk - 1 Golden Eagle - 2 American Kestrel - 193 Merlin - 31 Peregrine Falcon - 10 Unidentified Accipiter - 101 Unidentified Buteo - 17 Unidentified Falcon - 13 Unidentified Raptor - 53 Total birds: 3,715 |
| November There were 17 days of coverage in November, with a total of 1,309 birds. The peak migratory movement for Red-tailed Hawk occurred early in this month. Although numbers of all species steadily fell off after this, numbers (particularly of Red-tails and Turkey Vultures) were higher than usual in the final few weeks of the season, probably due to an exceptional number of days with strong North and Northwest winds during this period. These winds were often very strong, often consistently 15-20 mph throughout the day, with gusts to 30. Although these winds seemed to improve conditions for Red-tails and Turkey Vultures (at least compared to a day with little or no wind), this unusual weather may be one reason for the fairly small total of Red-shouldered Hawks this season. Red-shouldered Hawks are much lighter than both of these other species, and winds this strong make it very difficult for them to control their flight, and it seems likely that in conditions like this, they take a different route (get blown down to the coast, maybe, as Broadwings seem to do), or perhaps delay migrating. Certainly we tended to see disproportionately fewer Red-shouldereds on very windy days this season. |
| November
totals Black Vulture - 3 Turkey Vulture - 670 Osprey - 5 Bald Eagle - 4 Northern Harrier - 8 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 39 Cooper's Hawk - 21 Northern Goshawk - 4 Red-shouldered Hawk - 34 Red-tailed Hawk - 487 Golden Eagle - 2 American Kestrel - 1 Merlin - 1 Unidentified Accipiter - 8 Unidentified Buteo - 22 Total birds: 1,309 |
2007 Hawk Watch 2001 Hawk Watch
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