Counting Hawks Today

Conditions seemed promising for a good hawk flight today so I headed up to "Jeff's Dune" (north of the Channel at Muskegon State Park) for a few hours.  There were many raptors and other birds flying by, but it was not a remarkably good hawk flight.  The best bird was a Merlin (female or immature) that flew from out over the Lake and perched in a tree south of where Ruddiman tees into Scenic Drive.

I counted 40 raptors migrated between 10:30 and 1:30, all but four during the first two hours: 26 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 10 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 Broad-winged Hawk, 2 American Kestrels and 1 Merlin (zipping over the trees west of the dune).  I suspect many others flew overhead too high for me to see, especially in the last hour of mostly pure blue sky.  Other migrants included 3 Sandhill Cranes, 95 Blue Jays and a Palm Warbler that perched briefly in a tree near the dune.

Non-migrating raptors were another Merlin (or possibly the perched bird seen earlier) northwest of the dune, 2 Bald Eagles (1 adult, 1 immature), 2 Cooper's Hawks (immatures), 2 Red-tailed Hawks (1 adult, 1 immature) and an adult Sharp-shinned (all I.D.-able migrating Sharpies were immature).

Lots of smaller birds in the air today including American Goldfinch, Northern Flicker, Red-headed Woodpecker, nuthatches, crows, gulls, and bunches of stuff I couldn't I.D.

It was a super lovely three hours!