Leader:
March 30-Laura Webb
March 31-Don Wilson
April 1-Don Wilson
Migration:
March 30-Swainson's Hawks-31
March 31-Swainson's Hawks-25; Turkey Vultures-1
April 1-Swainson's Hawks-391; Turkey Vultures-5
Discussion:
We ended the season with a nice SW number. Several large kettles of hawks provided great looks for folks. Occasionally we will monitor the evening site just in case a large number of hawks arrives. However the official count is complete for the 2018 season.
This season we did not experience a wildflower bloom. This might be the single most important factor determining the number of hawks that utilize Borrego Valley as a stop-over destination.
We logged only 81.75 hours in 2018, our lowest number by far. The average number of Swainson's Hawks for 16 years is 4,737. This season we observed 4,172 SW's.
Here are several shots of hawks taken by our photographers.
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| Adult Male SW-David Nevett |
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| SW-David Nevett |
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| Dark Morph SW-David Nevett |
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| Dark Morph-David Nevett |
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| David Nevett |
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| Adult Light Morph and Light Intermediate Morph-David Nevett |
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| SW Unusual posture-David Nevett |
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| In Palo Verde-also unusual-David Nevett |
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| Adult Dark Morph-David Nevitt |
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| Light Intermediate-David Nevitt |
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| Subadult Dark Morph Swainson's Hawk-Dave Clark |
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| Adult Female Light Morph-Dave Clark |
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| Nice side shot-Dave Clark |
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| Adult Female Light Morph-Dave Clark |
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| Intermediate Morph-Dave Clark |
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| Dark Morph SW-Tom Lawrence |
