Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 17, 2013
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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 9 113 147
Bald Eagle 6 52 72
Northern Harrier 1 16 21
Sharp-shinned Hawk 17 111 124
Cooper's Hawk 2 31 42
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 10 14
Broad-winged Hawk 8202 10354 10588
Red-tailed Hawk 4 32 49
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 1 2 2
American Kestrel 1 29 37
Merlin 0 5 5
Peregrine Falcon 0 2 3
Unknown Accipiter 0 5 5
Unknown Buteo 0 1 2
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 5 8
Mississippi Kite 0 1 1
Total: 8244 10769 11120
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 17:30:00
Total observation time: 10.5 hours
Official Counter: Vic Laubach
Observers: Brenda Tekin, Gabriel Mapel, Rose Thomas
Visitors:
Many visitors today (about 15 total) including Bill & Linda Miller (North
Carolina), David Spears, Bill Nettelhorst, Susan Hastings, Elisabeth
Hunter, Tom Mizell, Peter Van Acker.
Weather:
Rockfish Gap as well as both east and west valleys were socked in with
heavy fog and low clouds until noon. The afternoon showed steady decrease
in clouds: 95%-75%-70%-30%-5%. Very light NE breeze throughout day. 15-20C.
Birds started flying a little before noon.
Raptor Observations:
Well, today will be a hard day to beat since we just had the 4th highest
single day record for BW! As soon as the fog lifted birds began to fly
kettle after kettle, keeping our clickers hot! The first several hours all
kettles were far out to the east with streams of BW hawks connecting
multiple kettles scattered across the horizon, with one kettle containing
885 birds! Then we struck gold out to the east with an "Oh My God" massive
kettle that split into several kettles containing a total of 2,400 birds!
At one point the entire eastern skyline not far above the horizon was full
of streaming BW hawks! When the massive kettle appeared we decided to
conduct a test where two counters made their own, silent count of the
birds. These birds were streaming too fast to use clickers so we counted in
blocks of 10 (one counter) or 50 (another counter). Ten minutes later we
were extremely pleased with our count comparison: 2,400 versus 2,340.
Later on, as the skies cleared in the final 2 hours they began streaming
overhead and then several large kettles finished the day on the west side
of the gap. Hourly BW count: 14 (10-11), 87 (11-12), 2035 (12-1), 653
(1-2), 1319 (2-3), 3080 (3-4), 999 (4-5), 14 (5-5:30). The majority of
today's flight was of medium height.
Our second Golden Eagle of the season (unaged) flew southward low to the
east at 12:12pm. Six BE: 5 adults (11:32, 12:10, 12:10, 1:21, 3:37) and 1
immature (11:50).
Non-raptor Observations:
5 Monarchs. 52 Swifts. 5 Hummingbirds. 2 Red-headed Woodpecker. 705 Blue
Jays. 9 Raven. 49 Waxwing. 50 Common Grackles.
Predictions:
Mostly sunny, mild, variable winds.
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Report submitted by Vic Laubach (laubach@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.rockfishgaphawkwatch.org
