Today's diurnal migration - excellent!

With today's forecast showing a NNW wind at a steady 15mph, we were expecting a solid hawk flight along the coast of Connecticut. When the wind is that strong migrant raptors are pinned against the coast as they work their way southward, so a place like Lighthouse Point in Connecticut is a fine place to spend a few hours on a day like today. Julian Hough and I started at nearby Ecology Park for a while, then moved to Lighthouse for the bulk of the day's flight. In all, the observers at Lighthouse tallied over 850 migrating hawks, falcons and vultures. It's been a long day of looking at bright blue skies followed by this computer screen, so I only have just about enough energy to post a series of photos from today.

The last bird of the afternoon came in the form of a tired and hungry BLACK-BILLED CUCKOO that actually landed on the lawn upon flying into the park. A couple of late CLIFF SWALLOWS were another welcome non-raptor highlight.




Black-billed Cuckoo

Northern Harrier

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Bald Eagle

Cooper's Hawk
Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk
Eastern Meadowlark

 -NB

Comments

  1. AnonymousOctober 12, 2016 at 4:07 PM

    We had an awesome morning in our yard as well, with 96 Blue Jays, 13 Northern Flickers, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and our first-of-season winter residents. These were all treats for us southern in-landers.

    ReplyDelete

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