It wasn’t looking like an ideal hawk watching day, relying on past experiences, but I hadn’t visited Bake Oven Knob since last October. Besides, it was Friday the 13th, and maybe it would be a lucky day.

It was a comfy 55 degrees when I left home, but a deep blue, cloudless sky with only the slightest breeze didn’t bode well for a decent flight of hawks. But, what the heck.

It was a “naturey feeling” morning, though. It felt like a good morning afield. Driving up the south side of Bake Oven Road from Lehigh County, I first encountered a few turkey vultures still warming on the limbs of a dead tree.

Shortly after that, a doe and her two fawns hurried across the dirt road in front of me. The first thing I noticed was that the fawns molt was complete, and they showed no signs of the spotted coats they had since birth.

Around the next bend in the road, a flock of 18 turkeys slowly worked their way across the street. A few paused to peck at the gravel, probably to add some “grit” to their gizzards. It was a bit reassuring to see the flock. Wild turkey numbers, particularly in our region, have dropped considerably. In fact, this is the first time I’ve seen more than two turkeys together in two years.

When I was less than a quarter-mile from the Knob parking lot, another doe hustled her two fawns away from the road’s edge. Both of those fawns still had very faint spots.

I arrived at my destination about 8:30. I know that the broad-winged hawks, which will dominate the count over the next 10 days or so, are late risers. Broad-winged hawks primarily use thermals to rise higher in the sky and then drift down ridge a mile or so until finding another bubble of rising air. About 9:30 or later, the birds start to move. I used that time to check out the small birds that should be dropping into the surrounding woods.

A Carolina wren (one of the few year-round singing birds) was singing when I arrived, and he sang on and off for another hour.

A pileated woodpecker cackled as it flew over the parking lot. It was one of four woodpecker species I saw that next hour.

Two red-eyed vireos and an eastern wood pewee were feeding in and around a choke cherry tree that was already shedding some of its leaves.

Two chimney swifts buzzed overhead, and their speed befits their name. Later, a flock of eight fish crows flew across ridge, heading toward the Lehigh County side of the mountain.

In all, I saw or heard 21 species of birds.

About 9:45, I sat on the tailgate of my pickup looking skyward for the first hawks to drift over. By 10:30, my original thoughts of a poor hawk flight became reality. I saw only one raptor, a lone turkey vulture. I was a bit disappointed because on Sept. 11, the Knob hawk counters recorded 453 broadies. And the next day, an early burst of 236 passed along the ridge. It wasn’t going to be my good hawk day. Later that evening, I checked the online hawk data and learned that over the entire day only 33 broadies were seen.

My father reminded a few times that when you go fishing, you are fishing and not always catching. I guess the same holds true for birding. I’m hoping to get up to the parking lot area again on the 17th or 18th, knowing that mid-September you could choose a day when 2,000 or 3,000 passes overhead. Alas, it still was a great day to be out there.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: Broad-winged hawk migrations peak here from Sep. 15 through the 23rd. What hawk species number will peak from Oct. 4 through the 12th? A. bald eagle; B. sharp-shinned hawk; C. red-tailed hawk; D. golden eagle.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: Only female mosquitoes bite you. They need a blood meal in order to reproduce.

Email Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com