First hawk watch for 2003 - From the tower at Magee Marsh. It was a nice morning weatherwise, but there was not much raptor movement. At 9:00 A.M. it was 32 F, and it warmed to around 40 by Noon. The winds were from the S-Sw at 5-12 mph. The cloud cover was 60% at the start and 10% by Noon. Most of the cloud cover was high cirrus, but some alto-cumulus covered the sun for a short while. I logged only one migrating raptor: a Red-tailed Hawk. There were two or three other local RTHAs. There were a couple local Bald Eagles. I counted about 100 migrating Crows and a half dozen migrating Robins. When it's a slow raptor day, we resort to counting Crows, Robins, Blue Jays, and N. Flickers. Flickers and Jays are more common in April. The BSBO asked us to count these other four non-raptor migrating species, but it's not mandatory. When it's a busy raptor day, these other birds don't get noticed. A couple years ago when it was a bad raptor day, it was a good N. Flicker morning, as one after another moved through at a consistent pace.

Other observations of note this morning: I saw a Great Blue Heron, heard Killdeers several times, heard several N. Cardinals and Song Sparrows singing during the first hour, a Chickadee sang, House Finches were singing, some Red-winged Blackbirds were migrating through, a House Sparrow carried white, fuzzy material into a nesting box. Sings of spring. One of the local Bald Eagles was an immature, flying at tree-top height over the nature center's parking lot. It got the Canadian Geese excited. The marsh was, of course, frozen and snow covered. I saw nothing but ice on Lake Erie. It's an interesting picture. There are a couple of pumps that keep small areas of open water by the nature center, and this attracted a lot of Geese, but no other water fowl.

A regular BSBO hawk watcher was working the beach while I was on the tower, He had two migrants: a Cooper's Hawk, and a Northern Goshawk, which is an excellent sighting. He came up to the tower at Noon, to work the afternoon shift for the tower, which is our main site. We talked for an hour, and then I left at 1:00 P.M. It was a sunny day, and I didn't use sunscreen, so my face is a little toasty. I keep sunscreen in the glove box, so there's no excuse. I should know better. There was a lot of glare due to the snow and ice on the ground. Even thought there was little raptor movement, it was nice being out there again. In a couple of months, the place will be crawling with people tracking down warblers.