Crisis Averted

By: Graham Scarbrough

As many people already know, hurricane Jaoquin had us coastal dwellers quite nervous as it arose in the south. Luckily, it changed course allowing us to breath a sigh of relief. For about four days however, we were socked in by rain and winds, causing the raptor flight to slow almost to a stop. This caused a sort of bottling effect and on the day that the skies cleared (10/5), we had quite a flight. Our total number was 4330, with Sharp-shinned Hawks taking the largest piece of the pie. Merlins also had a nice flight of over 300. We had one visitor that was particularly interesting: a tail-less Cooper's Hawk. We did get a good picture of it as it passed over the platform and I hope to get a copy to post soon. The following day (10/7) was not too shabby either with over 2000 birds total. The peregrines have not made a large push yet but we hope that will change soon.