Snickers Gap Hawkwatch
Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 20, 2004
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 9 162 180
Bald Eagle 2 54 61
Northern Harrier 1 30 32
Sharp-shinned Hawk 33 189 194
Cooper's Hawk 9 53 65
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 3 11 11
Broad-winged Hawk 146 3213 3323
Red-tailed Hawk 11 40 54
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 4 40 44
Merlin 0 6 6
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown 1 19 19
Total: 219 3817 3989
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 08:15:00
Observation end time: 17:00:00
Total observation time: 8.75 hours
Official Counter: T.M. Day and I.C. Topolsky
Observers: Bob Beard, Glen Gerada, Jesse Fulton
Visitors:
Few, but they were quite adept at finding birds in the blue. Bob Beard,
good to have you back, and good to see Chuck Phillips. Something about
Broad-wingeds brings people I don't see but once a year out of the
woodwork.
Weather:
No clouds at all for the first and last two hours, and a whopping
one-percent cover for the remainder of the day (and we're being generous
here). Wind was westerly until 1:45 EDT when it swung around to the east,
our favored wind. It only added to our misery, as we still had a searing
blue sky and we should have been getting boatloads. Too add more insult,
it swung back west at 4:30 EDT.
Observations:
Lost to the skies. Until today I was a firm believer that the worst day
birding was better than the best day of work. There is something
frustrating about being up there when you know there should be birds, and
you can't pull out nearly as many as you'd like. I suspect having seen
numbers from Waggoners and Hawk Mountain a few others know what I'm
talking about. I think I should have gone to work. The skies got our
birds today.
The coolest thing today was ballooning spiders, of which there were lots.
Talk about a creature at the mercy of the wind. A monarch is an F-15 to
compared to these guys. I figure the ones that sailed by going east in
the early part of the day were the same ones heading west later. Our
scopes were draped with long spider webs, and I'm told my hat was as well.
In order of how they are on my notes:
Monarchs: 4
Rose-breasted Grosbeak: 4
Blue Jay: 205
Chimney Swift: 22
Yellow-shafted Flicker: 5
Northern Mockingbird: 1
Barn Swallow: 5
Carolina Wren: 1
Cliff Swallow: 1
Red-headed Woodpecker: 2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo: 1
Eastern Phoebe: 1 singing
Hummingbirds: 2
Predictions:
It is the next day, and my boldest statement is that in nine days, October
is here, and we can shed these feelings that we missed thousands of birds.
Bring on the flappers and the big guys.
========================================================================
Report submitted by Todd Day (blkvulture@xxxxxxx)
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
