Today was a sad day in some respects. My last day at the hawk watch and last day with all the wonderful people that came up to help me scan the skies for the migrating raptors. I ended the season with 2,966 raptors, just shy of the more impressive looking 3,000 mark that I was hoping for. Still, due to strong flights by several species, it was a respectable and very enjoyable season. I also managed to rack up a total of 124 species seen from the watch, including 20 warbler species, 6 swallow species, 5 thrush spp. and 4 vireo spp.
The exciting thing is that in approximately 5 hours from now, my fiance and I are going to do what I am dubbing a “Medium Day”. It is in the spirit of a big day and we will certainly try to see and hear as many birds as possible. But, we will also be trying to get good looks at quite a few species that she has never seen and so our pace will be somewhat slowed by that. I am still hoping for around 100 species of birds seen in the maybe 15 hours that we will spend out in the field. Wish us luck as we bird n. New Jersey in hot pursuit of 20-30 warbler species and as many other things as we can get our eyes and ears onto!