Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 14, 2018
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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 0 18 219
Bald Eagle 0 45 227
Northern Harrier 0 8 39
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 683 1270
Cooper's Hawk 0 139 257
Northern Goshawk 0 1 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 4 19
Broad-winged Hawk 0 1025 23582
Red-tailed Hawk 0 44 100
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 3 9
American Kestrel 0 61 222
Merlin 0 9 60
Peregrine Falcon 0 8 45
Unknown Accipiter 0 3 8
Unknown Buteo 0 0 3
Unknown Falcon 0 0 6
Unknown Eagle 0 0 1
Unknown Raptor 0 9 27
Mississippi Kite 0 0 9
Total: 1 2060 26105
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Observation start time: 07:45:00
Observation end time: 09:00:00
Total observation time: 1.25 hours
Official Counter: Brenda Tekin
Observers:
Visitors:
Jonathan Stowe of Culpepper area arrived to witness the migration of the
Tree Swallows.
Weather:
Completely overcast with dark threatening clouds moving in. Slight
variable wind diminishing to less than 5km/h and shifting to SSE as rain
moved in by 8:45EST. Heavier rains moved in by 9am closing the count for
the day.
Temp: a chilly 6.1c increasing to 7.2. Low fog began moving up over the
upper ridge as air flow shifted to SSE.
Raptor Observations:
Only one Sharp-shinned at 7:52. No other raptors or vultures observed for
the next 90 minutes.
Non-raptor Observations:
An amazing flight of Tree Swallows! Wave upon wave, all coming in low
over/thru the gap with at least 3,886 counted! Many groups of 50-100, with
one impressive group of over 400! the entire parking lot was a wave of
swallows! Once the heavier rain and low fog moved in no more were
observed.
Northern Flicker- If weather had held there might have been another decent
flight like yesterday's impressive 431. Most were coming in small group
from 4 to 22 at a time with a total of 77 counted in 75 minutes.
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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
