Snickers Gap
20 Miles West of Leesburg, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 04, 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 31 49 227
Bald Eagle 14 19 94
Northern Harrier 13 13 49
Sharp-shinned Hawk 164 189 825
Cooper's Hawk 20 25 102
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 3 3 10
Broad-winged Hawk 39 56 37513
Red-tailed Hawk 21 22 56
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 54 56 96
Merlin 3 3 16
Peregrine Falcon 2 7 18
Unknown Accipiter 1 1 3
Unknown Buteo 2 3 3
Unknown Falcon 1 1 4
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 1 2 13
Total: 369 449 39029
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 16:15:00
Total observation time: 8.25 hours
Official Counter: Todd M. Day
Observers: Matt Orsie
Visitors:
Joe Coleman stopped by for a spell.
Weather:
Kinda perfect. After three days of icky, rainy, migration-stalling rain,
things got partly sunny, with 10-15 mph NW wind, temp in the high fifties.
This counter appreciated it, and the birds seemed to be fond of it as well.
Raptor Observations:
One of my all time, top ten favorite days in the fifteen years I've been
hanging out at Snickers.
Eleven species of raptor, with double-digits counts of eight of them.
Might have broken the site record for Kestrels, but don't quote me on that.
Felt like a jail break up there.
Non-raptor Observations:
Nice flight of other things, including a Loon and a Nighthawk (both most
likely Common, but not seen all that well).
Lots of Chimney Swifts flying west, at least a thousand, but maybe much
more. There was never a time that there weren't a half-dozen or more of
them in the air. I easily saw three times as many swifts at I did hawks.
But I wasn't counting swifts. Also a push of Scarlet Tanagers (9), in the
first forty or so minutes I was there. Wish I had gotten there earlier.
Carolina Chickadee, 2
Hairy Woodpecker, 1
Downy Woodpecker, 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 1
Red-headed Woodpecker, 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker, 4
Yellow-shafted Flicker, 10
Northern Cardinal, 2
Canada Goose, 17
Common Raven, 4
Carolina Wren, 2
Brown Thrasher, 1
Gray Catbird, 1
Chimney Swift, 1000+
Scarlet Tanager, 9
American Crow, 9
Cedar Waxwing, 20
Blue Jay, 212 on the clicker
Predictions:
More of the same, I hope. Conditions forecast to be similar, but I suspect
there will be fewer birds.
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Report submitted by Todd Day (blkvulture@xxxxxxx)
