Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 03, 2017
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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 26 26 75
Bald Eagle 32 32 41
Northern Harrier 0 0 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 4 12
Cooper's Hawk 1 1 13
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 3
Broad-winged Hawk 14 14 112
Red-tailed Hawk 8 8 25
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 12 12 15
Merlin 1 1 1
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 1
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 0
Unknown Buteo 0 0 5
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 4
Mississippi Kite 0 0 1
Total: 98 98 310
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Observation start time: 06:30:00
Observation end time: 19:00:00
Total observation time: 12.5 hours
Official Counter: Vic Laubach
Observers: Baxter Beamer, Gabriel Mapel
Visitors:
Shannon and Chris Updike, Sara and Tom Huley (Sara has been a counter at
the Golden Gate Bridge Hawk Watch), Peter Clark, Emily Southgate, Carol
Miller, Ted Thomason, Penny Owings
Weather:
Very nice, clear day with >25 km visibility. Strong NW winds. Temp. 13-21C.
Mostly sunny with some nice clouds. Migration was held up during the past
two days of rain.
Raptor Observations:
Today was quite a day to remember! We crushed our previous single-day Bald
Eagle record! The previous day-record was 19 on 9/14/2010. Today we had a
total of 32 migrating Bald Eagles with two hours with 10 eagles each!! Many
family groups and lots of 1st-YR birds!
Bald Eagle counts: 10:15am (3 adults), 10:30am (2nd-YR), 11:20 (1st-YR),
12:21 (2 adults), 3:15 (1st-YR), 3:24 (2 adults), 3:30 (adult and 1st-YR),
3:35 (2 adult and 2 1st-YR), 3:45 (2nd-YR), 4:12 (adult), 4:17 (1st-YR),
4:25 (1st-YR), 4:31 (1st-YR), 4:40 (2 adults), 4:44 (2 adults), 4:48
(4th-YR and 1st-YR), 5:02 (adult), 5:07 (adult), 5:22 (adult), 5:32
(1st-YR), 5:48 (4th-YR).
A very good Kestrel day today with 12 and an excellent Osprey day with 26!
The last raptor was a pair of Osprey at 6:40pm. The first raptor of the day
was the first Merlin of the season at 6:50am.
Non-raptor Observations:
7 Monarchs, 2 Double-crested Cormorant, 226 Common Nighthawks (mostly in
the final hour of the day), 237 Chimney Swift, 90 Ruby-throated
Hummingbird, 5 Raven, 13 Barn Swallow, 11 Tree Swallow, 3 Cliff Swallow, 5
Bank Swallow, 58 Cedar Waxwing, 2 Baltimore Oriole, 598 Common Grackle, 1
Scarlet Tanager.
Predictions:
Sunny
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Report submitted by Vic Laubach (laubach@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.rockfishgaphawkwatch.org
More site information at hawkcount.org:
http://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=491
