Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 18, 2012
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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 0 0 275
Bald Eagle 0 24 224
Northern Harrier 0 7 77
Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 90 2317
Cooper's Hawk 0 30 370
Northern Goshawk 0 0 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 28 64
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 17238
Red-tailed Hawk 0 338 544
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 8 10
American Kestrel 0 2 267
Merlin 0 4 26
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 20
Unknown Accipiter 0 1 17
Unknown Buteo 0 3 15
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 2 20
Mississippi Kite 0 0 1
Total: 0 537 21488
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(No count conducted today)
Weather:
Mostly sunny & mild temperatures. No available counters for today.
Raptor Observations:
Since this is the last official day of our season, I thought I'd include a
summary of 2012. Overall we had a very good 2012 raptor migration at
Rockfish Gap. Thanks to Rose Thomasâ steadfast counting during the
weekdays, the total number of days with counts this year was 87 (25-yr avg
= 71), and the total number of hours counted was 585 (25-yr avg = 431). We
had a successful Open House on Sept. 8 with a nice turnout of visitors and
lots of food, drink, educational materials and raptors! In terms of
individual raptor species, we had a very healthy migration with several
season records broken. Here is a summary:
275 OS â 2nd highest season count (record = 348 in 2011). [25-yr season
AVG = 152]
224 BE â A new season record (old record = 176 in 2011). [25-yr season
AVG = 30]
77 NH â A healthy number and highest since 77 in 1998. [25-yr season AVG
= 64]
2,317 SS â 3rd highest count after 3,644 in 1986 & 2,336 in 2011. [25-yr
season AVG = 1,122]
370 CH â A new season record (old record = 312 in 2011). [25-yr season
AVG = 144]
3 NG â This is about average. [25-yr season AVG = 4]
28 RS â A little lower than average. [25-yr season AVG = 33]
17,238 BW â A very healthy number. [25-yr season AVG = 10,612]
544 RT âLess than average. [25-yr season AVG = 826]
0 RL â This is average. Most years have zero and only a few have one
RL.
8 GE â A little higher than average. [25-yr season AVG = 5]
267 AK â 2nd highest season count (record = 294 in 2011). [25-yr season
AVG = 111]
26 ML â Tied with 2011 for the season record. [25-yr season AVG = 12]
20 PG â A healthy number. [25-yr season AVG = 16]
1 MK â This is very rare, but we had one on Sept. 15.
21,488 total raptors â This is a healthy number. [25-yr season AVG =
13,211]
Thanks to our core group of counters (Rose Thomas, Brenda Tekin, Vic
Laubach and Gabriel Mapel) and other counters or observers (Pete Nebel, Dan
Perkuchin, Mark Johnson, Allen Larner, William Leigh, Diane Lepkowski,
Andrew Clem, and Dave Hunter).
Non-raptor Observations:
We also count a lot of non-raptors and make note of any other interesting
sightings. I went back through the records and actually tallied many of
these, and highlights are included here. Our first attempt at counting
Chimney Swifts ended up with 2,068 for the season. We had a very high
number of Ravens with 362 total (although we canât be sure that all of
these Ravens were migrating).
Other counts include: 205 Hummingbirds, 2,301 Monarch Butterflies, 946
Nighthawks, 51 Red-headed Woodpeckers, 770 Double-crested Cormorants, 23
Common Loons, 2 Horned Larks, 2 Evening Grosbeaks, 2 Black Bears, 1 Red
Bat.
We had a total of 17 warbler species including: Black-throated Blue, Cape
May, Yellow-rumped, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Palm, Black-throated Green,
Tennessee, Black and White, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Redstart, Yellow,
Hooded, Blackburnian, Nashville, and Ovenbird.
Other birds of note include Pine Siskins, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Purple
Finches, Kinglets, American Pipits, a Winter Wren, a few Rusty Blackbirds
and plenty of Robins, Flickers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Waxwings, Blue Jays,
Sapsuckers and Tree Swallows.
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Report submitted by Vic Laubach (laubach@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, VA information may be found at:
http://www.rockfishgaphawkwatch.org
