Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 11, 2020
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 6 68 135
Bald Eagle 3 44 110
Northern Harrier 0 2 8
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 10 18
Cooper's Hawk 1 8 21
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 1 9
Broad-winged Hawk 39 205 460
Red-tailed Hawk 5 40 88
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 2 20 36
Merlin 0 1 3
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1
Unknown Buteo 0 2 2
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 1 5
Mississippi Kite 0 2 3
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1
Total: 58 404 900
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Observation start time: 09:00:00
Observation end time: 15:00:00
Total observation time: 6 hours
Official Counter: Brenda Tekin
Observers: Betty Mooney, Dave Hunter, Janet Paisley, Rose Thomas
Visitors:
Several folks made it up for the day. Seamore Zhu, Lois Kauffman, Nelson
Lewis, Chris Updike, Susan Morris, Betty Mooney, Janet Paisley, Rose
Thomas, Dave Hunter and Peter Dutnell.
Weather:
Count was delayed due to dense fog. By top of 9am EST brisk NNW winds had
moved fog along enough to see out to the N to NW over Shenandoah Valley and
out to the east. Upper north ridge to Bear Dean Mountain remained encased
in dense fog for another hour. Mostly cloudy most of the day with a few
hours with diminishing coverage with white puffy clouds mixed in and some
blue sky.
Winds were strong enough to topple chairs and pretty much anything that was
not battened down. By 3 pm winds had dropped off and more southerly.
Raptor Observations:
Was hopeful for a decent flight given the great NNW winds. We will be
thankful we were able to conduct a count and that birds were flying
although not as we had hoped for. Only three migrating Bald Eagles, a
first year, one adult, and 2nd year.
Non-raptor Observations:
It was fun catching a fast moving hummingbird as they zipped across the
gap, a total of 18 spotted. The bird of the day was the Glossy Ibis that
flew across the gap, fairly close for decent views. A special thanks to
local visitor Seamore
Zhu who had his camera in hand and was able to capture a decent image of
this rare flyover at Rockfish Gap. Other sightings included 6 Tree
Swallows, 278 Chimney Swifts, 13 Red-headed Woodpecker, 1 Pileated
Woodpecker, 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, and 3 Monarch Butterflies.
Predictions:
fog and rain!
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Report submitted by Brenda Tekin (brenda@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
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
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