Last weekend was filled with wonderful birds and many significant events for the Kiptopeke Hawkwatch. We had Outdoor Exploration Day, the Kiptopeke Challenge, a day with over a thousand birds, and we reached 10,000 birds for the season! All of this happened from September 28th to the 30th.
September 28
We had two very exciting events on September 28th: the Kiptopeke Challenge and the Park’s Outdoor Exploration Day. We had many wonderful visitors to the platform throughout the day, as well as some interesting bird sightings to add to our bird count. Anna, Michael, and I participated in the Challenge as part of the Piping Platformer team! While we fulfilled our daily duty watching for raptors, we kept an eye (and ear) out for different bird species to add to our tally. We ended up with a decent total of 61 different species at our location and won the special venue category! Some of the highlights from the platform included one Caspian Tern, one Solitary Sandpiper, and one Wilson’s Snipe. During our early morning walk we also saw three deer, one of which was a resident piebald deer. While it was a relatively slow raptor day, we had at least 60 visitors on the platform, many of whom were participating in Outdoor Exploration Day. We provided activities like bird coloring sheets for the kids and impromptu talks on migration and the types of raptors we see. The other exhibits and activities for Outdoor Exploration Day were very interesting and educational! Kiptopeke State Park had a native butterfly enclosure, and at the end of the event they released all of the captive butterflies!
Piebald Deer and her two fawns (Megan Murante)
Adult Male Northern Harrier (Megan Murante)
Inside the butterfly enclosure were several species of butterflies that are native to Virginia. There were also several chrysalises, and over the few days since they were brought to Kiptopeke some of the butterflies that were developing inside the chrysalises emerged! Here are some photos taken just before the butterflies were released on Outdoor Exploration Day.
Monarch in front of Tiger Swallowtail Chrysalises (Megan Murante)
Monarch Butterfly Chrysalises (Megan Murante)
Zebra Swallowtail Chrysalises (Megan Murante)
Black Swallowtail Chrysalises
Monarch Butterfly (Megan Murante)
Pipevine Swallowtail (Megan Murante)
September 29
On September 29th we had the highest day total of the season with over 1,000 raptors (our first 1,000 bird day of the season)! Of the 1,073 total birds, there were 275 Ospreys, 130 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 97 Cooper’s Hawks, 202 American Kestrels, 167 Merlins, and 125 Peregrine Falcons. It was great that there was a good variety of species in such high numbers.
Juvenile Bald Eagle and Broad-Winged Hawk (Megan Murante)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (Megan Murante)
Peregrine Falcon (Megan Murante)
Red-tailed Hawk (Megan Murante)
Flock of Great Blue Herons (Megan Murante)
Northern Harrier (Megan Murante)
American Kestrel (Megan Murante)
Peregrine being chased by a Merlin (Megan Murante)
Merlin (Megan Murante)
September 30
We made it to 10,000 raptors for the month of September! On the last day of September we were able to make it to 10,064 total raptors! It was another good flight day, with just over 600 raptors spotted, a large number of which were Merlins and Sharp-shinned Hawks. Since many of the raptors were Merlins, we saw some pretty interesting chases including a Merlin chasing a Bald Eagle! Some other highlights included five Northern Pintails, one Eastern Kingbird, one Northern Waterthrush, and one Solitary Sandpiper.
Red-tailed Hawk (Megan Murante)
Merlin attacking another Merlin (Megan Murante)
Merlin chasing a juvenile Bald Eagle
It is hard to believe that September is now over, but it was a great month for raptors at Kiptopeke. It was amazing that we were able to see just over 10,000 raptors in September alone. Hopefully the month of October will be just as fantastic!
-Megan
