Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 23, 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 2 104 344
Bald Eagle 2 51 137
Northern Harrier 1 23 44
Sharp-shinned Hawk 22 1436 2026
Cooper's Hawk 6 189 276
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 2 8 9
Broad-winged Hawk 0 80 28790
Red-tailed Hawk 13 90 119
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 1 1
American Kestrel 2 103 288
Merlin 0 12 22
Peregrine Falcon 1 9 27
Unknown Accipiter 1 1 3
Unknown Buteo 0 1 5
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 3 3
Total: 52 2111 32094
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 5 hours
Official Counter: Brenda Tekin
Observers: Pete Nebel, Rose Thomas
Weather:
A lovely fall day that brought out lots of visitors to the Blue Ridge
Mountains. Just the faintest whisper of a breeze out of the NW, later
increasing to maybe 6-8 km/h to more variable. The few clouds passing high
overhead indicated at least two wind directions. Early morning it was a
bit warmer at the higher elevations. Patchy frost along west side of the
ridge in the lower open fields and heading up the mountain the morning sun
hitting the grassy slopes produced a mystical mist rising upward, at times
producing golden halos. Temp: seemed to drop although it felt comfy in the
sun (of course we were dressed in multiple layers); (16c<13.5c); Humidity:
50%>57%; Bar.Pressure:1004; painfully bright blue sky with a few small
puffy clouds moving through helping to spot some of the high fliers.
Raptor Observations:
It started out slow with no birds, not even a crow or vulture for the first
hour. Thankfully a few more birds than yesterday and a nice variety.
Problem is the birds were either way off to the NE or high specs. First
migrant, an Osprey at 9:04 EST. Approximately 30 minutes later, a 2nd
Osprey that ended up heading North, dropping down toward South River in
downtown Waynesboro and we did not include in the day's count.
Highlight of the day was setting another season record - Today it was
Cooper's Hawk, adding six for total of 276 for the season moving up to
highest season count since 1976!
Two more Bald Eagle, adult at 10:53 a.m.(EST) and adult at 11:58.
Non-raptor Observations:
Common Raven -2; Northern Flickers-at least 12 for the morning; Eastern
Phoebe; Buck Moth past the observers;
A group of overnight hikers, appearing to be family members, including an
elder female with "GREEN" hair.
Predictions:
sunny with few clouds and a bit warmer
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Report submitted by Brenda Tekin (brenda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, VA information may be found at:
http://www.rockfishgaphawkwatch.org
