Kiptopeke Hawkwatch
Tip of Virginia's Eastern Shore, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 16, 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 10 716 1875
Bald Eagle 7 72 190
Northern Harrier 7 186 324
Sharp-shinned Hawk 252 2741 6882
Cooper's Hawk 19 682 1350
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 4 5
Broad-winged Hawk 0 993 1289
Red-tailed Hawk 3 51 96
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 1
American Kestrel 98 1553 3605
Merlin 31 449 1156
Peregrine Falcon 10 326 639
Unknown Accipiter 0 4 18
Unknown Buteo 0 1 2
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 7 15
Unknown Raptor 0 11 30
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1
Total: 438 7796 17478
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Observation start time: 06:45:00
Observation end time: 16:45:00
Total observation time: 10 hours
Official Counter: Kyle Wright
Observers:
Weather:
Painfully blue skies with winds from the west.
Raptor Observations:
In case you didn't guess with the first adverb of the weather summary
above, many of today's birds were hard to detect high against the blue sky
and quite spread out from east to west, without the past two day's stronger
winds which made them hug the coast a bit more. Another day when the
counter can only wonder how many birds they missed... sigh.
Non-raptor Observations:
A north bound Common Nighthawk at 10:32 had me scratching my head for a
bit. One Common Loon and two Great Blue Herons were noted on the move. Also
a few hundred Red-winged Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds headed south,
and a few Eastern Meadowlarks overhead aswell. About 50 Blue Jays were
noted, along with the first American Pipit of the season, while a few
Indigo Buntings and Bluegrey Gnatcatchers still linger. At least two
Eastern Bluebirds were heard. A nice warbelr flight in the moring, with
conservativly 1500 individuals seen, mostly Yellow-rumpeds, but
Black-throated Blue, Blackpoll, "yellow" Palm, Nashville, Northern Parula,
Common Yellowthroat and American Redstart also seen, and a number of
Kinglets of both species seen and heard.
Predictions:
Continued blue skies and west winds will likely produce a flight similar to
today's if there are sufficient birds left to the imidiate north. Don't let
the numbers fool you, this is not a flight to bring the kids out to see for
thier first hawkwatching experience. Hoping Wednesday's weather will shake
things up enough for a decent flight on Thursday, but that's a long way out
to be putting stock in a forecast... mine or the National Weather
Service's.
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Report submitted by Brian Taber (Taberzz@xxxxxxx)
Kiptopeke State Park information may be found at:
www.cvwo.org
