2009

2009: The best Broad-winged Hawks in 7 Years

2074 BWs on 9/20!
2071 BWs on 9/19!
1411 BWs on 9/15!

The Broad-winged Hawks (BW) are flying over and around Hook Mountain! Tuesday, 9/15, was a big day with 1411 BWs, but Saturday, 9/19, was even bigger, AND Sunday, 9/20 was bigger yet, by 3 hawks, logging in at 2074 BWs. We counted 2071 BWs in one day, and 2074 on the next!! That brings our total for this year to 6658 BWs, the best BW count we have had in 7 years. And, we can still get more, with another week or so before the end of the BW season. For the year to year trends for BW, see Hook Mountain Broad-winged Hawks: 1971 2008.

Celebrate our counters!

Click for BW video

Comparison to average of last five years
Our total count so far is noted in the first row of the table below, along with the average cumulative totals since 2004 for dates up to 9/20. These are on the last line, in blue. See also, 2009 count.

46 Bald Eagles
You can see that, in addition to more BWs this year, we also have more Bald Eagles (BE): 46 BEs is substantially more than we have counted to this date in other years. Last year was a record year for Bald Eagles, with a year total of 82. At our present rate, we could break that record again this year.

Other species
Osprey and Red-shouldered Hawk are slightly higher than average.

All other September species are below the average of the last 5 years.
The Kestrel and Merlin counts are about 60% of their average. While this has been the pattern for Kestrels in the last few years, I am surprised that the Merlins are also low. But, the season is still early for both those species, so let's hope that their numbers improve. The Sharp-shinned Hawk count is only slightly below average.

2009	137.3	0	6	128	46	23	512	25	0	6	6658	7	0	0	67	8	3	5	7494
Date	HRS	BV	TV	OS	BE	NH	SS	CH	NG	RS	BW	RT	RL	GE	AK	ML	PG	UR	TOTAL
9/20	118.3	0	0	117	24	32	556	36	0.2	4	2283	2	0	0.2	108	13	2	10	3187