End of Season Posting-March 30-April 1, 2018

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.

Adult Male SW-David Nevett

SW-David Nevett

Dark Morph SW-David Nevett

Dark Morph-David Nevett

David Nevett

Adult Light Morph and Light Intermediate Morph-David Nevett

SW Unusual posture-David Nevett

In Palo Verde-also unusual-David Nevett

Adult Dark Morph-David Nevitt

Light Intermediate-David Nevitt

Subadult Dark Morph Swainson's Hawk-Dave Clark

Adult Female Light Morph-Dave Clark

Nice side shot-Dave Clark

Adult Female Light Morph-Dave Clark

Intermediate Morph-Dave Clark

Dark Morph SW-Tom Lawrence