Link back to Home
Page
Use your browser's back arrow to return to prior page.
Wildlife
Information Center
Short Field Notes 2003
From
American Hawkwatcher
Articles:
Immature
Red-tailed Hawk Takes Prey from Adult 1
Golden
Eagle Takes Sharp-shinned Hawk at Bake Oven Knob. 1
Record
Bald Eagle Flight at Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County, PA.. 2
Record
Golden Eagle Day at Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County, PA.. 3
Another
Record Golden Eagle Day at Bake Oven Knob. 4
2003
Rough-legged Hawk Sightings at Bake Oven Knob. 5
Prior Edtions:
Short Field
Notes 2002
Short Field
Notes 2001
On Saturday
10/25/03
at Kimmel Lookout on the Kittatinny Ridge in Berks County,
I was watching the migration when I took note of an adult Red-tailed Hawk
(Buteo jamaicensis) flying toward me. It veered off to my left and dropped into
the forest about 30 yards away from where I was sitting. Approximately 10
minutes later, I noticed the adult Red-tail flying out of the trees with a
squirrel in it’s talons. Suddenly an immature Red-tail started to chase the adult
with the squirrel. The two birds flew into the trees next to me and I heard
them hitting the braches. They came out of the trees right in front of me and
descended into the valley below. The immature raptor was pursuing the adult
closely with its talons out. The immature was closing in and appeared to be
about to hit the back of the adult, when the older bird swung the squirrel up
in the air and the immature swooped past and snatched the squirrel out of mid
air. I was so close, I observed all this action without my binoculars.
Scott Fisher, Reinholds, PA
(back to top)
On 18
October 2003, a group of six hawk watchers were at the North
Lookout at Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County,
Pennsylvania. At 12:25 Ted Beltz spotted a Golden
Eagle that had already passed the lookout undetected. As we all swung around to
see the bird, we all noticed a Sharp-shinned Hawk streaking toward the eagle
from the left, dwarfed by the big raptor. In the blink of an eye, the Golden
Eagle rolled toward the right, shot out its talons, and grabbed the harassing
Sharp-shin, and rolled back to level flight. Moments later, Bob Hoopes,
watching in his spotting scope noted that the eagle tore something off the
small hawk, possibly the head, and tossed it away. The eagle continued cruising
down ridge and out of sight carrying its prize.
A search through our raptor literature in the Wildlife Center library produced only two
references to Golden Eagles taking other raptors as prey. Maurice Broun (1948)
reported a similar incident at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in which a Golden Eagle
captured an adult Red-shouldered Hawk, carrying it into the tree canopy to dine
on the Red-shoulder. The only other reference was in Watson (1997) in which the
remains of a “buzzard” (Buteo sp.) were found in a Golden Eagle nest in Scotland.
Literature Cited
Broun, Maurice. 1948. Hawks Aloft: The Story of Hawk Mountain.
Dodd, Mead Co., New York, NY.
Watson, Jeff. 1997. The Golden Eagle. T&AD Poyser,
Ltd., London, UK
Dan R. Kunkle, Slatington, PA
(back to top)
September, 2003 started out wet in eastern Pennsylvania. Heavy rain on Labor Day, 1
September continued through Wednesday, grounding the migration. Some lingering
rain and marginal flight conditions on Thursday further restricted flight. On
Friday 5 September the skies cleared, 6-10 mph northwest winds blew and the
Bald Eagles flew. Early bird Scott Fisher recorded the first eagle of the day
at 6:35 (EST) at the North
Lookout (Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh/Carbon County, Pennsylvania). Bob Hoopes joined
Scott for the second eagle at 7:12.
Steve Sushinski and LeAnne Bonner arrived shortly thereafter. Three more eagles
were recorded prior to 2:00
in the afternoon. As the sixth eagle passed shortly after 2:00, we had no idea that 28 more were on the
way, gliding down the Kittatinny Ridge or from points north toward the Knob. By
5:00 in the evening, the
previous daily Bald Eagle record for Bake Oven Knob was history. By 6:00 the new daily record was
established at 34, with 14 adults and 20 immatures. The Osprey count for the
day was an impressive 55. In fact, the
last 40 raptors recorded were 22 eagles, 16 Osprey and 2 Redtails. Looking back, the old mark of 25 Bald Eagles
was set the day after Hurricane Floyd ravaged the east coast in 1999 (Kunkle
1999, Heintzelman 2000).
Literature Cited
Heintzelman, Donald S. 2000. Extreme Migration Dates
and Maximum Daily Raptor Counts During Autumn at Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania,
USA.
International Hawkwatcher 1:19-21
Kunkle, Dan R. 1999. The 1999 Autumn Hawk Count at
Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County,
PA. American Hawkwatcher 25:2-10
Robert E. Hoopes, Slatington, PA
(back to top)
During the first week of November, 2003 the Bake Oven Knob
hawk watchers were wondering where the Golden Eagles were. Counters at other
Kittatinny Ridge sites such as Waggoner’s Gap, Hawk Mountain
and lookouts to the northeast were wondering the same. Twenty-nine Goldens were recorded in October
and just one counted during the first week of November at BOK. Southerly
component winds, temperatures in the upper 60s and limited visibility
restricted the Golden Eagle migration during this period. Only four Bald Eagles
and one Golden were observed migrating this first week of November. This all
changed with the coming of a predicted cold front.
The word went out from Hawk Mountain
and other sites that Saturday, November 8 could be a record Golden Eagle day.
With the cold front came 8-15 mph northwest winds and temperatures in the 30s.
With it also came the Golden Eagles, along with a spectacular flight of
Red-tailed Hawks and six Bald Eagles for good measure. Jeff Frantz and Steve
Sushinski, positioned on the North Lookout recorded one Golden and one Bald
Eagle in the 7:00 hour,
along with the first Rough-legged Hawk of the year. They were later joined by
Ted Beltz, Bob Hoopes, and Ron Kline along with others willing to brave the
cold, blustery winds. It was worth it. The team continued to record eagles in
each hour of the day right up until the last Golden Eagle at 5:05 EST. In addition to a record 21 Golden
Eagles, the group witnessed six Bald Eagles, six Northern Goshawks, and a near
daily record flight of 640 Red-tailed Hawks. Many of the Red-tails were high
fliers and difficult to pick up in the blue sky spotted with puffy white
clouds. The team joked that if they had not been so busy counting eagles
throughout the day they may have been able to count another 61 Redtails needed
to break the 1980 record of 700 Red-tails in one day. The previous daily record
for Golden Eagles of 15 was set in 1987 (Heintzelman 2000).
As the final Golden Eagle passed overhead, the sun had
already set, darkness was beginning to surround us and the full moon was rising
over Point #1 in preparation for the lunar eclipse that evening -- a beautiful
end to a spectacular day on the Knob.
Literature Cited
Heintzelman, Donald S. 2000. Extreme Migration Dates
and Maximum Daily Raptor Counts DuringAutumn at Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania,
USA.
International Hawkwatcher 1:19-21
Robert E. Hoopes, Slatington, PA
(back to top)
The huge Golden Eagle flight on November 8, 2003 was followed by a
14 Golden Eagle day on November 14 and a 15 Golden Eagle day on November 15.
This 15 eagle flight actually tied the 16 year old daily record that was broken
the week before on November 8. Our focus now turned to breaking the annual
Golden Eagle record of 93, set in 1999 (Kunkle 1999). LeAnne Bonner, Ron
Hillegas and Rich Rehrig recorded three more GEs on November 17, establishing a
new season record of 95 Golden Eagles. But the Goldens were not done yet.
Poor flight conditions on November 18 and 19 gave way to
another cold front bringing 6-12 mph northwest winds and temperatures that
dropped from the upper 50s to the upper 30s.
LeAnne Bonner and Ted Beltz staffed the North Lookout (Bake Oven Knob,
Lehigh/Carbon County, Pennsylvania) on November 20, hoping for a few more
Goldens. They got 29 more. This was nearly double the long-standing record of
15 (Heintzelman 2000) and an amazing eight more than the recent new record of
21. They recorded Golden Eagles in every hour between 8:30 and 4:30, with seven in both the 12-1 and 3-4 hours. This also
pushed the BOK season record for GEs to 124. Several more Goldens during the
last week of the count topped off the new season record at 137 Golden Eagles,
47% more than the previous season record.
Literature Cited
Heintzelman, Donald S. 2000. Extreme Migration Dates
and Maximum Daily Raptor Counts During Autumn at Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania,
USA.
International Hawkwatcher 1:19-21
Kunkle, Dan R. 1999. The 1999 Autumn Hawk Count at
Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County,
PA. American Hawkwatcher 25:2-10
Robert E. Hoopes, Slatington, PA
(back to top)
Of the 16 regularly occurring raptor species seen most years
at Bake Oven Knob, Lehigh County,
Pennsylvania, the Rough-legged
Hawk (Buteo lagopus) is certainly the most rarely seen. Throughout the 1970s,
Rough-legs were seen much more frequently, with the record annual count of 37
occurring in 1971 (Heintzelman and MacClay 1972). Since 1978, the highest
annual count for the species was 7 and the mean number seen in those years is
just 2.3 annually. In the past decade, only eight Rough-legs were spotted. Five
of the Arctic breeders were seen this year, including a Rough-leg hat trick
occurring on November 15, when three of the Buteos were sighted by counters
including Ted Beltz, John Leskosky, Steve Sushinski, Jeff Frantz, Jeff Hopkins
Literature Cited
Heintzelman, Donald S. and Robert MacClay. 1972. The
1970 and 1971 Autumn Hawk Counts at Bake
Oven Knob, Pennsylvania.
Cassinia 53: 3-23.
Kunkle, Dan R. 1998. Long Term Trends in Rough-legged
Hawk Migrations at Bake Oven Knob, PA.
American Hawkwatcher 24:11-12.
Dan R. Kunkle, Slatington, PA
(back to top)