Harvey's Knob
Roanoke, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 29, 2010
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 0 104 113
Bald Eagle 0 46 54
Northern Harrier 0 10 12
Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 163 165
Cooper's Hawk 0 35 36
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 0
Broad-winged Hawk 0 13756 13759
Red-tailed Hawk 0 39 50
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 1 1
American Kestrel 0 41 41
Merlin 0 8 9
Peregrine Falcon 0 8 10
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: 0 14219 14258
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 11:00:00
Total observation time: 4 hours
Official Counter: Bill Grant
Observers:
Visitors:
Traffic was very light today, however cars and campers from 14 states and
Ontario came into the knob today.
The states represented were Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,
Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York,
North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas
Weather:
Upon arrival I had some hope of flight today, both Nichols knob and Pat's
Place were clearly visible, althoug it took bins to see Pat's place. There
was heavy cloud cover in the valley on the west but the east side was
pretty clear with just a little haze in the distance. The wind was from
the Southeast as it was most of the morning and the cloud cover was total.
Around 8:25 EST a light drizzle began to fall which turned into a steady
rainfall by 10:00 EST. The valley remained hidden on the west side and by
10:00 EST both sides were completely socked in and remainded so until I
terminated the watch at 11:00 EST.
Raptor Observations:
For the four hours of the watch not one single raptor including vultures
were seen in the air.
Non-raptor Observations:
As I turned onto RT 460 East from Alternate 220, about a mile from that
intersection I observed three large flocks of ducks flying from my
rightside to the left. I quickly counted as many as I could in the first
flock and there were 40 or more and the other two flocks were even larger.
They were definitely not geese but were the classic duck shape but since
they were backlighted I could not identify the species.
No Ravens today, just a few small birds that moved quickly from one side
of the knob to the other too fast to identify. The only other bird flying
today were two crows that came down the East side at 9:07 EST.
Predictions:
Doesn't look too good ladies - near 100% chance of rain in the forecast
with locally heavy flooding. Maybe Friday???????
========================================================================
Report submitted by Bill Grant (clarinetman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Harvey's Knob Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://bijame.googlepages.com/home
