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.

My BSBO hawk watch schedule - All shifts are 9:00 A.M. to 12 Noon at the Magee Marsh tower.
March:
Tuesdays: 4th, 11th, and 18th
Saturdays: 8th, 15th, and 29th

April:
Tuesdays: 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th

Oak Openings last Saturday - Not an official birding day, but a family afternoon. The three of us went to OO in mid-afternoon on Saturday. It's nice that it doesn't get dark until 6:30 or so. Anyway, we first visited the Windows on the Wildlife building and watched the birds feeding for a while. The usuals were present along with an American Tree Sparrow. Then we walked the red trail through the woods and along the dunes. It took us over an hour, since we were all throwing a lot of snowballs at each other and at the trees. The weather was comfortable with calm winds, overcast skies, and temps in the mid 30's, which made for easy packing snow. It was a fun walk with a lot of laughs, and we only encountered other humans on the trail just once. We would pick out a tree and try to hit it with a snowball. We all had to hit it in order to move on. We stopped by the dunes so CP could rest on the bench for bit and really wore our arms out on some trees. There was around five inches of snow on the ground. Some of the low bushes were still covered. It looked nice, and I was kicking myself for not bringing a camera to record the winter wonderland and the snowball throwing. After the trail walk, we visited the Windows building again. Since it was late in the day, the Cardinals were actively feeding. As usual, the last birds at the feeders were Juncos and especially the Cardinals. We counted around 15 Cardinals. After OO, we stopped at Waterville to eat dinner at Koral Hamburg. A most enjoyable afternoon.

Birds in the backyard - On Saturday, the White-throated Sparrow made another appearance, although I've not seen it the past couple of days. Yesterday, the Flickers returned. Both were at the feeders at the same time. That was the first time I saw them since last Monday, but I didn't see them today. They are obviously not feeding here as much anymore. Also late yesterday, there were 12-15 Juncos in the yard. Their numbers vary. Most of the time, there are from 1 to 5 Juncos in the yard, but there are those bursts where more than 10 show up.

Still major winter weather around. Depending upon where in the yard I stand, there's four to six inches of snow on the ground. The low temperature this morning in the area was zero to five below. I just heard on the radio of a possible winter storm for our area on Wednesday. Temperatures this week are expected to fluctuate with some days above freezing and some below. I don't think there's much life left in this winter. Sure, we'll have some cold spots in March. We always do. But I wouldn't be surprised if we pop a 50 degree day next week. Need to run a nerdy weather pool on when the first official 50 degree day occurs. When it warmed up last month, I don't think we hit 50. It was in the 40's, I do know that. I got my first hawk watch duty tomorrow morning. It's suppose to warm up during the night, which must mean southerly winds, so who knows. I'll need to check my main weather map for wind directions and speed.