The Nature of Delaware

By Joe Sebastiani, Seasonal Program Team Leader

This amazing photo of an immature Golden Eagle was taken by Hawk Watch volunteer Kim Steininger in November as it flew past Ashland Hawk Watch.

Ashland Hawk Watch, in its 5th autumn, began on September 1 this year.  As of the end of November, it has proven to be one of the best years yet, with 13,548 raptors counted…so far.  Cyrus Moqtaderi, in his third year as the Hawk Watch Coordinator, is staying on to count a bit more in December.  We couldn’t be happier!  Migration is continuing, and we expect to see more Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, and possibly more Golden and Bald Eagles, and perhaps a few surprises.  The Hawk Watch will be operating sporadically over the next few weeks, usually on days fit for raptor migration.  Cyrus will announce when the Watch will be open the day prior on the de-birds list-serve.  If you don’t subscribe to this e-mail list-serve, you can look up posts here.  Just sort the posts by date and pick the latest post from Cyrus.

Here are the numbers for the season through November:

Black Vulture – 742

Turkey Vulture – 1,621

Osprey – 469

Bald Eagle – 306

Northern Harrier – 144

Sharp-shinned Hawk – 3,169

Cooper’s Hawk – 538

Northern Goshawk – 4

Red-shouldered Hawk – 375

Broad-winged Hawk – 4,455

Red-tailed Hawk – 806

Golden Eagle – 11

American Kestrel – 680

Merlin – 80

Peregrine Falcon – 27

Short-eared Owl – 1

The Ashland Hawk Watch is a joint project between the Delaware Nature Society, Delmarva Ornithological Society, and the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife

Share this post with your friends!