Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 03, 2007
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
BV 0 0 0
TV 0 0 0
OS 0 0 170
BE 0 0 86
NH 0 1 44
SS 7 51 1519
CH 4 14 160
NG 1 1 1
RS 3 10 29
BW 0 0 15214
RT 69 194 431
RL 0 0 0
GE 0 1 2
AK 0 0 199
ML 1 1 18
PG 0 1 16
UA 0 0 7
UB 0 1 16
UF 0 0 1
UE 0 0 0
UR 1 1 18
Total: 86 276 17931
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 12:30:00
Total observation time: 4.5 hours
Official Counter: Vic Laubach
Observers: Brenda Tekin
Weather:
Extremely high winds barrelling down out of the WNW to NW swept across the
upper elevation easily in excess of 50km/h!
Temp: 4.5c > 7.5c;
Humidity: 66% > 70% < 65%;
Bar.Pressure: steady at 1011;
No clouds but extremely hazy out over the western valley. Approaching the
mountain, haze concentrated along the upper ridges, north to south,
appeared like heavy smoke and initial thoughts was a forest fire.
Raptor Observations:
The Red-tails stayed low, most heading into the winds with a few zipping
out on east side of the ridge. The three Red-shouldered Hawk had a
difficult time, struggling to maintain balance, oftentimes appearing more
accipiter-like as they bounced along the ridgetop before sailing sideways
across the gap. It's possible winds were just too much as early morning
flight quickly died down to a slow trickle.
Vic Laubach was on hand at 8:21 to observe an adult Northern Goshawk low
on north side of gap before it dipped below ridge and flew across on east
side.
Non-raptor Observations:
Predictions:
sunny, cold, and hopefully less wind.
========================================================================
Report submitted by Brenda Tekin (bt8x@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, VA information may be found at:
http://home.ntelos.net/~btkin/rockfish_gap_hawk_watch
