Harvey's Knob
Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 29, 2008
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 0 16 119
Bald Eagle 0 10 68
Northern Harrier 0 3 23
Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 230 345
Cooper's Hawk 1 36 68
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 7 14
Broad-winged Hawk 0 2 6252
Red-tailed Hawk 3 103 143
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 1 2 3
American Kestrel 0 21 50
Merlin 0 3 10
Peregrine Falcon 0 4 10
Unknown Accipiter 0 5 7
Unknown Buteo 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 1 1
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 5 10
Total: 9 448 7123
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Bill Grant
Observers:
Visitors:
A group of 5 hikers appeared moving North to South on the trail, the one in
front with an orange flag. May have been a group of foreign visitors?????
Cars from Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia,
Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio,Tennessee, Vermont and of course Virgina.
Particularly strong on Ohio with 17 cars observed. One nice camper on a
pickup truck from British Columbia.
Particularly lacking was motorcycles with two finally coming by moving
south just as I prepared to leave at 4:00 EDT.
Weather:
One word - COLD. Winds at Beaufort 3-5 all day long starting out of the WNW
and ending up out of the N. Clear day with excellent visibility all day.
Temps ranged from 32.7F to 45.5F beginning to fall back during the 12-1
hour.
Raptor Observations:
First bird of the day at 8:34 was a sub-adult IV Golden Eagle, about 50
feet out on the west side and up about 100 feet. The bird gave every
possible look it could - like it was showing itself off. Fantastic bird.
From the 9:00 hour on the birds that were seen were moving like havingbeen shot out of a cannon with their wings folded by their sides, just