Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 30, 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 1 107 347
Bald Eagle 3 62 148
Northern Harrier 1 32 53
Sharp-shinned Hawk 6 1652 2242
Cooper's Hawk 4 210 297
Northern Goshawk 1 2 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 2 11 12
Broad-winged Hawk 0 80 28790
Red-tailed Hawk 34 145 174
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 2 2
American Kestrel 0 108 293
Merlin 1 15 25
Peregrine Falcon 0 9 27
Unknown Accipiter 0 1 3
Unknown Buteo 0 1 5
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 4 4
Total: 53 2441 32424
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 16:00:00
Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Multiple Counters
Observers: Brenda Tekin, Mark Johnson, Vic Laubach
Visitors:
Few folks made it up including Vic Laubach, Mark Johnson, William Leigh,
Allen Larner, Gabriel Mapel, Diane Lepkowski, Tom Mizelle, Janet Paisley,
and Cole.
Due to poor road conditions at the higher elevations, the Skyline Drive
was closed, and such a lovely day with trees still with color.
Quite a few tourists made it over to our area to take scenic photos and
stopped to see what we were doing.
Sitting out in the parking lot, close to our vehicles, we have come up
with the idea of having a tail gate hawk watching party next fall season.
Stay tuned for more details...
Weather:
Compared to yesterday's bone-chilling cold, today was a breeze! A bit
chilly in the shade, because of the snow and ice on side of the hotel, we
opted to set up out in the parking lot which turned out to be a pretty good
spot, actually. The pavement reflected the sun adding additional warmth.
Winds greatly diminished overnight, down to 10-15 km/h starting out and
slacking off as the day progressed, to maybe 5-7 km/h out of the N to NW
throughout the day. Temp: 4.0c>12.2c; Humidity: 50%>62% then dropping
steadily in the afternoon to 39%; Bar.Pressure: 1008; Cloud cover: pretty
much non-existant, except for a few puffs floating over the NE ridges.
Raptor Observations:
A day before Halloween and we had quite a few treats! We had not one but
three Bald Eagles, imm. at 11:26 and two adults (12:07 p.m. & 12:40 p.m.
EST). Vic picked up on a falcon, a nice Merlin which observers watched for
several minutes, pondering over the unsual behavior or something none of us
recalled seeing. It constantly flapped, moving around, back and forth, not
really in a hunting mode. It finally seemed to come out of its trance,
heading SE straight toward us where it circled and then flew directly over
providing great views and photo-op!
While everyone was looking northward, Gabriel Mapel caught sight a low
flying Osprey fly up over the hotel directly behind us from east side of
the ridge, heading across the parking lot heading SW.
We had hoped for few more Red-tails but I think the weather was just too
nice today and not much wind.
Try as we might we just could not conjure up a Golden Eagle and had to
settle for the season's second NORTHERN GOSHAWK! First spotted by Diane
Lepkowski, it was flying in fairly low moving from south to north to our
right on east side of the ridge. Initially several folks were calling
Northern Harrier but then soon realized NO white rump. That was one BIG
bird with longish tail flying away from us toward the north and below eye
level. The broad wings, especially the bulging secondaries and longish
broad tail were evident. And the power! That bird would make one downward
beat and move a good distance forward. Not fast, but slow and methodical.
Wow, I had seen that before. I hollared Goshawk and talk about folks
jumping to their feet when they realized there was no white rump patch.
There was much excitement as we watched the goshawk, an adult female based
on images, circle, fly back heading south, only this time further away from
the ridge and then circle back. William Leigh and Vic Laubach were able to
get the bird in their spotting scopes while Diane Lepkowski and I attempted
to photograh it. The bird headed back toward the north, disappearing and
luckily was relocated by Vic Laubach as it headed out over Waynesboro on
west side of the ridge. We lost it as it sped on down the ridge.
Non-raptor Observations:
Dark-eyed Junco including one nice flock of 25-30 birds;
Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets;
A late Red-headed Woodpecker first spotted by Vic.
Common Raven - a few milling around.
Monarch Butterfly - 17;
Predictions:
Hopefully full of treats and no tricks!
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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
