Swainson’s Hawk photographed by Paul Konrad Counters and visiting birders at the Cardel raptor count site, located a short distance northwest of Veracruz, Mexico.

October migration of birds of prey at Veracruz has been nothing less than remarkable with daily totals topping one hundred thousand raptors some days, and topping 188,000 at one of the two count sites October 9th! That total included 162,178 Broad-winged Hawks! Most daily counts during October are topped by huge flights of Broad-winged Hawks, although Monday, Swainson’s Hawks tallied highest at 41,142 – minimum. At this rate the question becomes, how many millions of raptors will pass overhead Veracruz this fall?

Veracruz is the most impressive raptor migration site in the Americas, and one of the most important migration areas in the world. Birds of prey migrating south from Canada and the United States funnel between mountain ranges immediately west of the Gulf of Mexico and northwest of the port city of Veracruz. These migrating raptors are headed for wintering areas in Central and South America.

Actually, there are two raptor counting sites northwest of Veracruz, named Cardel and Chichicaxtle (ChiChi), which are separated by six miles. Therefore no two birds at either site is counted twice, and essentially, you can add both counts to come up with an overall Veracruz total. Some days Cardel has the higher count, but most days ChiChi seems to tally highest. Either way, if you add the two counts together, they can add up to more than a quarter-million raptors on special days!

You can check both the Veracruz raptor counts for daily totals, as well as month to month census information, and you can even check counts from other years day to day; all this at

https://www.hawkcount.org/month_summary.php?rsite=741 for the Cardel raptor count site, and https://www.hawkcount.org/day_summary.php?rsite=528&ryear=2018&rmonth=10&rday=13

for the Chichicaxtle raptor count site. Also, be sure to check out the daily totals of each species – it’s great fun!

To give you an idea of what’s been happening at the Veracruz count sites, recent total counts are provided below:

A = Cardel B = Chichicaxtle C = Veracruz total

Oct. 9: A = 115,762 B = 188,159 C = 303,922

Oct. 10: A = 89,413 B = 43,117 C = 132,530

Oct. 11: A = 43,785 B = 124,561 C = 168,346

Oct. 12: A = 70,536 B = 16,086 C = 86,622

Oct. 13: A = 58,454 B = 114,473 C = 172,927

Oct. 14: A = 73,757 B = 52,534 C = 126,291

Oct. 15: A = 96,963 B = 66,606 C = 163,480

That’s a one week total of more than a million! (1,154,207!) And that’s just the raptors - what an exciting migration season in Veracruz!

To review raptor counts at locations to the north in the United States and Canada, along with the Veracruz sites, refer tohttps://www.hawkcount.org/ And thanks to Hawk Migration Association of North America for their remarkable raptor migration website and their efforts on behalf of birds of prey.