Harvey's Knob
Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 22, 2010
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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 5 97 106
Bald Eagle 3 43 51
Northern Harrier 1 7 9
Sharp-shinned Hawk 5 128 130
Cooper's Hawk 2 28 29
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0
Broad-winged Hawk 380 12829 12832
Red-tailed Hawk 1 37 48
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 0 34 34
Merlin 1 7 8
Peregrine Falcon 0 7 9
Unknown Accipiter 0 2 2
Unknown Buteo 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 1 1
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 5 5
Total: 398 13225 13264
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 15:30:00
Total observation time: 7.5 hours
Official Counter: Bill Grant
Observers: Baron Gibson, Barry Kinzie, Dillard Childress, Mike Crowder,
Randy Doss, Tina Gibson
Visitors:
Cars and motorcycles and RV's today from Arizona, California, Connecticut,
Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, as well as Ontario and Quebec,
Canada.
Very few motorcycles today.
Weather:
Winds out of the ENE for most of the day changing to SW by 2:00 pm EST.
Lots of haze and fog for most of the morning turning partly sunny by
afternoon bt with much haze remaining. A massive storm was brewing by the
time we decided to call it a day, lots of high winds with leaves and small
branches blowing all across the Parkway. A tree had come down at milepost
103 completely blocking the Southbound lane, which I called in to
1-800-PARKWATCH. Temps ranged from 21.8 C to 31.2, humidity from 30 to 54
percent but the most telling weather figure was the constant fall in
barometric pressure from 27.52 to 27.45 by the time the storm came up from
the west over the knob.
Visibility very poor most of the day with Purgatory and Sharptop never
completely clear and haze over both sides of the valley as well as high in
the sky.
Raptor Observations:
Lots of local TV's, plus the 3 BV's and the ravens.
The great majority of the birds came out ot the fog and haze on the east
side including the 3 eagles (1 mature, 2 immature).
The Merlin and the Northern Harrier were observed on the west side along
with the Redtail and several of the Sharpies.
Non-raptor Observations:
Lots of small warblers many in fall plumage, hard to identify.
Too many monarchs to count since the hawks came on a pretty steady basis
but at least 1000 of them passed through Harvey's and the local milkweed
had a number of monarch caterpillar's on them. Also the Harvey's Knob sign
sported two monarch chrysalis on the bottom left side.
Predictions:
Dress light ladies - 92 degrees F predicted with winds from the WNW which
could produce a good flight provided the storm system that passed through
and if forecast to be out of the area by tomorrow doesn't move north and
hold the birds back.
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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
