Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Aug 30, 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 4 29 29
Bald Eagle 1 24 24
Northern Harrier 0 3 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 15 15
Cooper's Hawk 0 3 3
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 2 2
Broad-winged Hawk 12 242 242
Red-tailed Hawk 0 7 7
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 1 16 16
Merlin 0 0 0
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 0 2 2
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 0
Total: 20 343 343
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Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 15:00:00
Total observation time: 6 hours
Official Counter: Rose Thomas
Observers: Pete Nebel
Visitors:
Ignacio Gandara, Mike and Sara Smith
Weather:
Warm 24-30*C. Light ESE breezes (the worse for raptors!). 50-70% cloudy. A
few clouds were pretty grey.
Raptor Observations:
A slow day, but Rose squeezed out 4 more Osprey and 1 Bald Eagle (adult
12:52pm).
Non-raptor Observations:
2 Pileated Woodpecker, 1 Red-headed Woodpecker, 30 Cedar Waxwing, 3
Hummingbirds, and 116 Chimney Swifts. Rose ended the watch at 3pm
"bird-time", but I arrived at 5pm (6pm EDT) to see if more Nighthawks would
fly through. I was soon joined by Mike and Sara Smith, from Elkton, who had
the same idea. Soon after 7pm the Nighthawks started trickling through the
gap from the east. They slowly trickled through over the next 45 minutes in
small groups of 5-20. We ended up with 143 Nighthawks tonight.
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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
