Heading towards Knoxville TN from Upstate NY today on the first leg of my cross country trip to CA, I had several decent sightings. The best birds of the day undeniably was a flock of 8 BLACK VULTURES flying low over the western Virginia skyline. Migration appears to be slightly behind schedule when compared to last year’s x-country trip starting on March 16th. Red-tailed Hawks only numbered less than 15 on all of I-81 and Turkey Vultures less than 45. This is down considerably down when compared to last year’s extremely high numbers. Hopefully tomorrow’s trip from Knoxville TN to Oklahoma City OK will produce a few more year birds…maybe even an Ivory-billed Woodpecker or two in Arkansas!!!

Until next time,

~Chad (3/4/06)