Kiptopeke Hawkwatch
Tip of Virginia's Eastern Shore, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 24, 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 6 801 1960
Bald Eagle 3 141 259
Northern Harrier 4 241 379
Sharp-shinned Hawk 150 4934 9075
Cooper's Hawk 31 1168 1836
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 3 16 17
Broad-winged Hawk 7 1039 1335
Red-tailed Hawk 29 130 175
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 1
American Kestrel 17 1926 3978
Merlin 7 653 1360
Peregrine Falcon 3 415 728
Unknown Accipiter 0 4 18
Unknown Buteo 0 1 2
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Falcon 0 10 18
Unknown Raptor 0 29 48
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1
Total: 260 11508 21190
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Observation start time: 06:45:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 9.25 hours
Official Counter: Kyle Wright
Observers:
Weather:
Well, the peoples to the east kept stealing my clouds, and the peoples to
the west seemed reluctant to share their clouds, resulting in a (painful)
blue hole overhead much of the day. Despite the direction of the cloud
movement, surface level winds were out of the east and northeast most of
the day, strangely shifting to northwestern origins for the last hour and
fifteen minutes of the count.
Raptor Observations:
First adult Red-shouldered of the season, but other than that, not much of
a story to tell that the numbers and weather summary don't explain.
Non-raptor Observations:
Twelve Great Blue Herons, three Common Loons, one Common Merganser, eight
Bluebirds and one Meadowlark counted. Another nice flight of Flickers,
Robins, and icterids. Also about 2,000 Tree Swallows seen today, with a few
Rough-wingeds and Chimney Swifts still mixed in. Eighteen Monarch
flutter-bys.
Predictions:
Next few days are looking less than ideal for a decent flight... woe are
us...
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Report submitted by Brian Taber (Taberzz@xxxxxxx)
Kiptopeke State Park information may be found at:
www.cvwo.org
