I was on the tower at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area from 8:00am-3:00pm today to see what migrants would come by on the southerly winds.  I had a pretty good day and saw the following migrants:

Northern Harrier- 2
Coopers Hawk- 4
Red-tailed Hawk- 18
Rough-legged Hawk- 1
Killdeer- 41
American Crow- 75

Hawks started showing up around 9:30 and peaked from 10:00 until noon.  After 1:00 the wind shifted to the northeast (despite what the weatherman predicted) and I stopped seeing migratory hawks altogether.  Crows and Killdeer trickled through fairly regularly throughout my count, with the biggest flock of crows being 36 that passed around 2:45.  In addition to the migratory hawks there were also at least 4 Red-tailed Hawks, 3 Northern Harriers, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Rough-legged Hawk, and 9 Bald Eagles that I could see from the platform that were hunting in the area but never headed off in a northerly direction.

Other highlights included thousands of waterfowl and blackbirds.  There was a fairly regular flock of Rusty Blackbirds hanging in the area around the tower and waterfowl seen include Canada Goose, Tundra and Trumpeter Swans, Mallard, American Wigeon, Northern Pintail, Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Canvasback, and Hooded and Common Mergansers.  Several Red-breasted Nuthatches were around as well as 3 Sandhill Cranes that passed by in the afternoon.

The forecast for tomorrow looks similar to today so hawk watching on the tower could be good again.  I personally won't be able to get out to watch tomorrow but if anyone does get out to the tower tomorrow it would be awesome if you stopped in at the BSBO and let us know what you are seeing!

Good Birding!

Ryan Steiner
Research & Education Intern
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
13551 West State Route 2
Oak Harbor, Ohio 43449
419-898-4070
www.bsbobird.org

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