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.