Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 04, 2015
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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 1 213
Bald Eagle 0 1 181
Northern Harrier 2 7 66
Sharp-shinned Hawk 6 25 1430
Cooper's Hawk 3 8 220
Northern Goshawk 0 0 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 3 3 31
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 10497
Red-tailed Hawk 10 20 210
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 1 2 14
American Kestrel 0 0 187
Merlin 1 1 47
Peregrine Falcon 0 1 40
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 18
Unknown Buteo 0 0 5
Unknown Falcon 0 0 10
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 0 25
Total: 27 69 13197
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Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 14:15:00
Total observation time: 5.25 hours
Official Counter: Brenda Tekin
Observers:
Visitors:
Folks from the Richmond Audubon (A.W.Eck, Adolph White, Diane Jadlowski,
Kathy Springston, Nancy Baker);
Miranda Light and Alicia Pyne from Bridgewater College.
Weather:
Overall a very pleasant day. Increasing clouds midday diminishing to 25%
cloud cover with lots of bright blue sky by noon. Clouds moved back in by
late afternoon. Wind: Light SE breeze most of the day changing to a more
easterly flow by 2pm. Temp: 13C>19.7C<18.5C; Humidity: 90%<77%;
Raptor Observations:
Slow but steady during morning and then really slowing down as light wind
diminished and switching out of the east. A nice diversity for so late in
the season including a late Osprey that flew in low and circled overhead.
Highlight was season's record setting Merlin at 11:41AM. First spotted out
to the east doing a bit of quick flaps and because of angle, distance,
lighting it seemed more accipiter-like and initially thought a
sharp-shinned. It then hit the accelerator, racing a short distance and
abruptly came to a dead stop, sort of hung in the air a few short seconds
and then turned toward us and coming full speed. A falcon. Definitely a
falcon. With just a few strokes of the wings it flew up the gap heading
straight toward us providing decent views for the folks visiting from the
Richmond Audubon. This was #47 for the season and setting the all-time
record. An adult Golden Eagle at 10:36, 20 minutes after an adult male
Northern Harrier flew past. One of the three Red-shouldered Hawks came in
a bit closer for decent looks against bright blue sky.
Non-raptor Observations:
Flocks of Cedar Waxwings throughout the morning with at least 1,038;
Red-winged Blackbird-106; Common Grackle-17.
Although we don't count vultures, an impressive swirling kettle of 153
Turkey Vultures was observed over Bear Den Towers, a steady stream flowing
into the kettle. They disbanded and headed high overhead heading south.
Monarch Butterfly: 2
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Report submitted by Brenda Tekin (brenda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.rockfishgaphawkwatch.org
