Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 28, 2008
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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 1 102 118
Bald Eagle 0 21 31
Northern Harrier 2 17 19
Sharp-shinned Hawk 34 274 292
Cooper's Hawk 6 49 53
Northern Goshawk 1 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 1 1
Broad-winged Hawk 1 14184 14427
Red-tailed Hawk 1 21 21
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 1 1
American Kestrel 2 65 69
Merlin 0 3 3
Peregrine Falcon 1 9 9
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 0 2 2
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 5 6
Mississippi Kite 0 1 1
Total: 49 14756 15054
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Observation start time: 10:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 6 hours
Official Counter: Vic Laubach
Observers:
Visitors:
A group from Richmond's "Old Dominion Appalachian Trail Club" stopped by
early to witness the Goshawk and Peregrine including Michel Calandra, Janet
Bailey, Kris Krase, Kathy Gillespie, Devon Gillespie, Brian T. (forgive any
mispellings).
Allan Richardson stopped by to say hi also.
Weather:
We had lots of rain over the past 3 days with over 5 inches in Waynesboro!
Today, the hawk watch was solid fog until 10am (11am daylight savings
time). Brisk winds from the west all day. Very overcast most of the day
with a lot of dark clouds passing over as well as a few, small, scattered
spots of blue sky mixed in. Low clouds in morning with higher clouds in
afternoon. Light rain between 12-1pm. Warm with temp. range of 20.0-24.0C.
Humidity 80%->70%.
Raptor Observations:
The first hour of the day was quite exciting as soon as the fog lifted. The
highlight was an immature Northern Goshawk at 10:41am which flew in from
the east side of the ridge, dive-bombing vultures as it flew in low (even
below tree-line) in front of the ridge. With the spotting scope it quickly
became apparent that it was a NG. It then flew in close over the old
ice-skating rink where it revealed that it was a beautiful, immature bird.
Also observed in the first hour was a Peregrine Falcon (10:47am), an
Osprey, 18 Sharp-Shinned Hawks (including one tight group of 5 flying
together), and 2 Coopers Hawks. After the first hour the birds trickled in
however. A total of 9 species observed today!
Non-raptor Observations:
37 Monarchs, a group of 6 Ravens, and one lone Double-Crested Cormorant.
Predictions:
Sunny with light winds from NNW!
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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
