The South Livingstone Raptor Count for the spring migration of 2009 has now begun. First official day of counting began on 15th February 2009. Follow the daily movement of raptors on this blog updated daily by Peter Sherrington.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

May 20 [Day 82] (Piitaistakis Ridge) There was 2.5 cm of fresh snow on the ridge and it was 0C at 0800. The temperature twice fell to -1C during subsequent snow periods and reached a high of 5C at 1400. Winds were W-WNW all day generally gusting 30-40 km/h but reached 70 km/h during snow squalls that regularly moved east over the site from the Continental Divide, some lasting for up to an hour. Cloud cover was 60-100% mainly cumulus and stratocumulus and ridges were obscured during periods of snow. It was yet another pleasant spring day but there was good raptor movement for this late in the season with 13 migrants of 7 species recorded between a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk at 0844 and a juvenile Northern Harrier at 1803. Most birds occurred soon after snow squalls moved off to the east. At 1202 a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk, a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk and 2 adult Broad-winged Hawks (one dark and one light morph) soared together over the ridge before gliding north and soon after a juvenile Northern Goshawk and a juvenile Golden Eagle followed them north. At 1651 the 100th Sharp-shinned Hawk of the season moved north followed 8 minutes later by number 101 but we are still well short of last year’s total of 196. New species for the season were 7 Red Crossbills, and 2 Swainson’s Thrushes which looked like they regretted leaving Cost Rica! 12.67 hours (932.7) NOHA 1 (30), SSHA 6 (101), COHA 1 (18), NOGO 1 (110), BWHA 2 (6), RTHA 1 (198), GOEA 1 (2717) TOTAL 13 (3746)

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