Today was Turkey Vulture day at Hornsby. There was an interesting assortment of other birds as well, but the overwhelming numbers were TVs. My day started a bit early with a Long-billed Curlew that flew over calling just after I arrived at 8:45. I decided to not put up the canopy right away, since rain was expected, and it did rain for about half an hour, but then the rain left, and I had clouds off and on. The wind kept switching, and at times was very gusty. Not much happened until noon, when I started getting migrants. The main push came from 3:00-5:00, when over 500 Turkey Vultures came through. Along with the vultures were a few Swainson's Hawks, including two dark morphs, and a good number of small raptors. Other migrants included a few cormorants, a single gull, which I wasn't able to identify, and a White Pelican that came through late with a small group of vultures and Cooper's Hawks. I saw another single pelican about 45 minutes later that may have been the same bird; it was with vultures also, and looked like it was going to head up to Decker Lake. One dark ibis came in late as well.

Other notable birds were a small flock of 17-20 American Avocet and 2 Yellow-headed Blackbirds. Had a great view of a Cooper's Hawk diving into the shrubs and grabbing a blackbird, too. At least one Osprey came by during the day, but the local Red-shoulders and Red-tails were surprisingly absent.

I think today may have been our last "official" day at the Hornsby Bend Hawk Watch. If that's the case, I'd like to thank everyone who has come out to help, especially Arnold Pfrommer, who came almost every day that Gary and I were there. I also want to thank Travis Audubon for sponsoring us, and Kevin Anderson and the folks at Hornsby Bend who put up with us birders hanging out there!

I'm going to try to get out on Friday, just in case... I haven't gotten a Ferruginous Hawk yet this season!

-Peg Wallace