Spring?

Poor conditions continued to dominant the count through Saturday, but things broke wide open Sunday with south winds that sent temps soaring into the 60’s! The south winds also resulted in the biggest flight of the season! However as luck would have it that was my day off so Joe Youngman had the fun job of counting the 249 Redtails, 117 Sharpshins, 71 Rough-leggeds, 57 Bald Eagles, 43 Turkey Vultures, 21 Northern Harriers, and 12 Kestrels that passed by that day. The forecast looks promising for another good flight in the up coming days, fingers crossed it actually happens. Vehicle traffic on the mountain is slowly increasing with reports indicating the west side is “reasonably passable” (take that however you wish). I would suggest avoiding the east side as evidenced by the photo below (both these vehicles spent over 24 hours stuck on the mountain). The non-raptor migration is finally hitting the area with Canada Goose, Am. Widgeon, Hooded Merganser, Killdeer, Am. Woodcock, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Northern Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Song Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Le Conte’s Sparrow, Common Grackle, Red-winged and Rusty Blackbird, Eastern and Western Meadowlark all arriving in the last week.