Harvey's Knob
Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 09, 2011
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
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Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 0 1 158
Bald Eagle 0 3 96
Northern Harrier 0 1 32
Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 14 814
Cooper's Hawk 2 6 115
Northern Goshawk 0 0 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 4 19
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 10226
Red-tailed Hawk 5 148 325
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 1 1
American Kestrel 0 1 69
Merlin 0 0 20
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 29
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1
Unknown Buteo 0 1 4
Unknown Falcon 0 0 4
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 8
Mississippi Kite 0 0 1
Total: 7 180 11925
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Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter: Bill Grant
Observers: Carl Christensen
Visitors:
A hiker from Florida who got tired of following the Appy Trail and came
walking down the Parkway from the North stopped and chatted and continued
on South walking the Parkway.
Very little traffic today, cars from Florida, New Jersey, Tennessee, Texas
and Quebec, Canada.
Carl Christensen from Forest was with me all day thank goodness as the
birds were appearing on both sides. I kept a good watch on his back after
the next listed vistior. Thanks for all your help Carl.
VISITOR OF THE DAY - BEWARE TOMORROW LADIES
I was sitting in my van preparing to indulge in a little lunch, my van
facing the east side of the parking lot when low and behold at 11:40 I
caught a glimpse of what I thought was a fairly large dog walking South
down the ole Appy Trail. I assumed it was probably with a hiker but as I
scanned around for a hiker I saw none. Then the animal leaped atop a rock
on the trail right across from me and I picked up my bins and looked right
into the eyes of what I at first thought was a mountain lion or cougar as
they are sometimes called. I talked with Katie James about it and she said
she had seen a Bobcat a while back in the area.
After returning home I have spent over half and hour looking at different
pics of the two animals and I think that it was definitely a
Bobcat because of the facial features. However the cat appeared to have a
fairly long tail. In any event it crawled across the rocks on the east side
eventually leaping down off the left side and disappearing into the
wherever. YA NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'LL SEE AT HARVEY'S KNOB !!!!!!
Weather:
Mostly sunny to start with temps ranging from 9.4C at 9:00 AM to 15.4 C at
watch end. Clouds began to gather by noon with the approaching cold front
from the west and the barometric pressure began a steady drop from 27.45 to
27.32. Winds started from the S and by 11:00 were mostly out of the SE.
Altogether a rather pleasant day, sorry it wasn't to the birds liking.
Visibility was limited all day long by a persistent haze first at a
distance of about 25 km and then closing to 20 km on both the west and east
sides.
Raptor Observations:
6 TV's, 4BV's (the three amigos who found a fourth somewhere) and our
resident Ravens Heckel and Jeckel who managed to find 10 others to join
them. WOW !!! Raptors were very slow to appear with a number of resident
red-tails and a resident kestrel making appearances. Managed to come up
with 7 countable birds.
Non-raptor Observations:
A nice female blue bird played around for quite a while in the tree at the
side of the road in the upper parking lot. A male Pileated WP gave good
looks as it flew by on the west side. In addition Pine Siskins, Juncos,
Goldfinches and several other small birds which went by too fast to
identify.
Predictions:
Quite a bit colder with possible morning showers but then turning partly
sunny. May have a few birds.
Make sure someone watches the rocks on the east side ladies.
Good birding and whatever else might appear. Hee Hee!!!!
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Report submitted by Bill Grant (clarinetman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Harvey's Knob Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://bijame.googlepages.com/home
