_Franklin Mountain Hawkwatch 2016 Wrapup_ The traditional Franklin Mt. Hawkwatch New Years Day end of season came under mostly sunny skies and light westerly winds today.An adult Red-tailed Hawk went south at 11:24 a.m., making it the only raptor of the day and last bird of the season.This marked the 28^th consecutive year of counting at the site.
This was a year when Golden Eagle numbers returned to a level Franklin Mt. has not seen in a decade.The season total was 231 Goldens, the first time the site has surpassed 200 since 2006.That year was the last of four consecutive 200+ GE seasons. This year's success was aided mightily by the 57 Golden Eagles tallied by Steve Hall on Nov. 11.This stands as the second highest single day GE count at the site, topped only by the 71 also counted by Steve exactly 11 years earlier, Nov. 11, 2005.That day, in turn contributed to the 252 Goldens in 2005, still the site's annual high. The 57 Goldens on Nov. 11 this year ended a two week stretch that included 6 double-digit days for the species, but also largely closed the door on goldens for the rest of the year.The big birds were spotted on only 11 of the remaining 28 dates through Jan. 1. Golden Eagles were one of the few bright spots of the season at Franklin Mt. however. Notably, Red-tailed Hawk numbers were significantly down; the 1751 counted is 21% below the 16 year average since full-time counting began.This continues a trend observed at other ridge sites over the past decade, and may be a result of this species becoming less migratory, rather than a population decline.Audubon Christmas Bird Counts in NY State show red-tail counts holding steady over the past 15 years. Most other species were down 30-50% from their 16 year average, and the year's total raptor tally of 4688 was 9% below average. Other species on the up side were Bald Eagles, at 197 rising 20% above average---also a continuing trend.Although not known as a Broad-winged Hawk site, 2060 of these September migrants were spotted---the site's third highest count and 38% above average.A big day of 1089 broad-wings on Sept. 20 provided over half the season's total. 101 days and 586 hours of coverage---all volunteer---were supplied by our counters.As always, a special thanks to Steve Hall who covered three days a week through the season.Other counters this year include:Larry Dake, Kyle Dudgeon, Fred Fries, Becky Gretton, Randy Lynch, Andy Mason, Pam Peters and Tom Salo.We also had a great supporting cast of spotters and hawk enthusiasts who made the mountain a fun place to be this fall---thanks to all! /--Andy Mason/ -- Andrew Mason 1039 Peck St. Jefferson, NY 12093 (607) 652-2162 [email protected] -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
