View from FIRE hawkwatch

All Time Records Watchers and Watched 7 metropolitan area watches HMANA NEHW Hawk Watch Statistics

We are an all volunteer organization in operation Sep 10-Nov 10 for 25 years. Location
2007 Count & Web updated:  01/06/2008 

Come join us.
 Watch with us, count with us,
and enjoy the fun!
     

Trends for Hawk Species 
 at Fire Island

Robert Moses Bridge board walk
Experience Fire Island 

Report Form:   Excel, HMANA pdf

  We average over 160
Peregrines a year! 

Come help us
count them!

FIRE News

Hawkwatch:   FIRE (Fire Island Raptor Enumerators)
(numbers are tentative until final reports are submitted)
 
On Saturday 9/29   the hawks paid a visit to Fire Island in record numbers.  (in honor of Bobby's retirement?)

Preliminary numbers:
317 ML (old records 292 on 10/1/87 and 291 on 9/28/02)
184 OS (old record 181 on 9/29/01)
168 NH (old record 76 on 10/23/93)  Shattered!

A fine group also counted:
298 AK, 30   PG, 21   SS.

 
After 25 years it is not easy to top all-time record days.....Breaking 3 on the same day is truly remarkable!
2007 Data

Summary: Very good numbers of OS, NH, CH, ML, & PG so far; but AKs & SSs continuing low.  PGs have been outstanding and we may be on a record breaking pace for them.

       Notable days to date(10/07/07)

 Deviation    from
9/15 9/16 9/17 9/23 9/28 9/29 9/30 10/7 YTD 25 yr Ave
OS 7 17 20 9 6 184 61 26 372 '+96%
BE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 4 +254%
NH 2 14 7 13 13 168 54 32 327 '+182%
SS 5 21 6 16 1 21 1 17 110 -57%
CH 0 1 2 0 1 3 2 7 19 +183%
NG 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
RS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
BW 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
RT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
RL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0  
AK 27 20 12 189 8 298 3 49 667 -49%
ML 98 40 24 119 47 317 22 103 1031 +28%
PG 1 1 0 2 20 30 9 41 126 +48%
U 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 2  
TH 140 114 71 348 96 1021 152 278 2660 -5%

The last column is the deviation from our 25-year average, for the most common species.

 
This year going strong!  Lots of OSs, NHs, CHs, MLs & PGs!

New daily records were set on 9/29 for OS, NH & ML.  The NH record was an outstanding, 168 more than doubling the old record of 76!  I would never had thought that we could break all time records for 3 species on the same day after 25 years!

Three records for the date were broken on 10/7 - OS, CH, & PG. 

The AKs and SSs continue well below their 24 year average.  This is not new but the continuation of a trend of the last 5 years.

The numbers total hawks (TH) are almost normal, the OS, NH, ML & PG almost canceling the low AKs & SSs numbers.

 
Be on the lookout for the next cold front.  Tuesday and the weekend may be good!

Hope to see you all down at the beach!
 
  Drew

Location:

On a barrier beach, off the south shore of Long Island, NY. We're about midway along Long Island, slightly west of due south from New Haven CT.

Driving directions: Proceed south on Robert Moses Parkway, over the bridge to Robert Moses State Park. From the water tower circle (check for PG), proceed East to parking lot #5. From the NE corner of the lot, walk east toward the lighthouse. We watch from the highest point near the road barriers.

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Webmaster: Trudy Battaly merlin@pipeline.com or BAT'S BYTES  

Updated: 01/06/08 12:43 AM