Hawkwatch 9/9: Above the Fog, Away from the Fire

The Golden Gate Bridge, being consumed.

We found ourselves above a thick layer of fog on Hawk Hill today. From our vantage point, the sun was shining, and it looked to be a beautiful day of hawkwatching. My first bird of the day was a prairie falcon flying out of the North quadrant and across the landscape. Then, as the wind began to pick up, we started to count kettles of red-tailed hawks. They seemed tentative to cross over the thick fog in the bay, however, so they began to accumulate in the East. The challenge was to keep track of which red-tails had already been counted, which were joining the kettle, and which were flying away. This proved to be a tricky challenge. There was also an occassional peregrine falcon in the kettle, as well as the usual turkey vultures. By 2:00, the temperature had dropped significantly and we were surrounded by fog, so we ended the count early.

Approaching fog.

Our view by 2:00.

A couple other interesting sights of note:
-A group of five planes flew through the sky, writing some advertising message. However, their handwriting was terrible and we think they were advertising some sort of talent agency, but it was unclear. Maybe they need a talent agency to identify better sky-writers.

Successfactors?

-Yesterday afternoon, a fire started at Mt. Diablo, one of our distant landmarks. Throughout the day, we could see smoke billowing off of Mt. Diablo. At times, it looked like the fire was calming down and then, out of nowhere, a new, huge plume of smoke would appear. Pretty crazy to watch.

Distant wildfires.

Total Sightings: 152
Hours Counted: 4.25
HPH: 35.76
Total Species: 9

Species Counts:
Turkey Vulture: 21
Osprey: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 4
Cooper's Hawk: 7
Broad-winged Hawk: 1
Red-tailed Hawk: 99
American Kestrel: 3
Peregrine Falcon: 4
Prairie Falcon: 1

Unidentified...
Accipiter: 3
Buteo: 2
Falcon: 2
Raptor: 4