Jo Hays Vista – Big Osprey Flight!

Today up at Jo Hays Chuck Widdman, Chet Gottfried, and I dealt with on-and-off rain showers and heavy fog cover to try and catch some of the migrants passing by. We had 47 raptors pass, which we thought was pretty great considering the weather conditions. A nice kettle of 12 Broad-wings plus a few singleton Broad-wings made them the most numerous raptor of the day with a total of 19 counted. However, in a very close second place were Osprey. We had 14 Osprey pass by today; our highest one-day count ever at JHV. Most of the Osprey came by as pairs although we did have one group of 3 pass together! Other raptors included 1 4th year Bald Eagle, 1 juvenile Northern Harrier, 3 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 3 Cooper’s Hawks, 2 American Kestrels, 1 Peregrine Falcon, 1 Unidentified Falcon, and 2 Unidentified Raptors.

Osprey - adult (likely a male); Photo by Alex Lamoreaux

Osprey - adult (likely a male); Photo by Alex Lamoreaux