A day at the Boothe Park Hawk Watch
Here is an account of a hawk watching day at Boothe Park in Stratford. The following data and information is from yesterday, September 20. This ended up being a remarkable day because of the late afternoon. It shows how much very specific weather conditions impact every single part of diurnal migration.
| Day’s Raptor Counts | BV | TV | OS | BE | NH | SS | CH | NG | RS | BW | RT | RL | GE | AK | ML | PG | UA | UB | UF | UE | UR | Total |
| 0 | 2 | 12 | 5 | 1 | 102 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 1254 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1419 |
| Observation Start Time |
08:00:00 |
| Observation End Time |
17:30:00 |
| Official Counter |
Frank Mantlik, Scott Kruitbosch |
| Observers | Charlie Barnard, Frank Mantlik, John Marshall |
| Weather | A weak cold front passed through last night. As it approached Hurricane Igor and Igor approached us the pressure gradient increased our winds early today, making for variable 8-12MPH winds with higher gusts for the duration of the day. Mixing was not enough to create any clouds. A totally blue sky was the constant problem. Temperatures went from the mid 60s to mid 70s in very dry air. |
| Observation Notes | For such a great flow on a wonderful calendar day it was ridiculously and frustratingly very quiet from 8 through when I left at 12, and this continued until 1:30. Despite other nearby watches, like Lighthouse Point, getting hundreds of raptors before 10AM we had next to nothing. When I returned at 2:15 things slowly improved. This culminated in the best hour ever recorded during the short time we’ve been at the site from 3-4 when all the Broads finally descended to visible levels/came over our area. Specifically, 3:30-3:45 had probably about 500 raptors. I was alone and likely missed a lot. After a lull from 4-4:30 things picked back up again through about 5:15. |
| Non-Raptor Notes | Notable residents included 1 COMMON RAVEN attacking a Bald Eagle over the river and 3 BLACK VULTURE. Migrants included 2 BLUE-WINGED TEAL, 1 LINCOLN’S SPARROW, 1 Palm Warbler, 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler, 1 Magnolia Warbler, 12 Chimney Swift, 18 Cedar Waxwing, 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee, 1 Eastern Phoebe, 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird, 1 House Wren, 1 Gray Catbird. |
The “I” in the above piece is me. I sure needed some help late yesterday! Once again, let us hope that the Boothe Park hawk watch is under ideal conditions behind a cold front Saturday for the Great Stratford Bird Festival.
