Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 15, 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 1 9 40
Sharp-shinned Hawk 63 746 1333
Cooper's Hawk 13 152 270
Northern Goshawk 0 1 2
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 4 19
Broad-winged Hawk 0 1025 23582
Red-tailed Hawk 3 47 103
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 3 9
American Kestrel 11 72 233
Merlin 2 11 62
Peregrine Falcon 1 9 46
Unknown Accipiter 0 3 8
Unknown Buteo 0 0 3
Unknown Falcon 0 0 6
Unknown Eagle 0 0 1
Unknown Raptor 1 10 28
Mississippi Kite 0 0 9
Total: 95 2155 26200
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 15:00:00
Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter: Brenda Tekin
Observers:
Visitors:
Joe Minor from Ontario was on board all day. Hoping his photos of the last
bird of the day at 2:47 EST that zipped in, snatched something midair and
took off lickety-split back to the east before sailing southward, will help
in IDing that at times took on the appearance of a falcon, kite and
accipiter, all at the same time!
We also had the pleasure of meeting Uki and Kio, two very docile and
friendly ferrets in the company of their young companions Marcus, MKena and
Raven.
Weather:
Pretty much 100% cloud cover all day with a few specs of blue sky and sun
peaking through. Low ground fog moved up the gap from the east early as
winds were barely drifting from SE. As winds, what little there was,
shifted to more SW the fog abated back to the east. Winds around 6-7 km/h
most of the day increasing a bit by later in the day bringing in a lower
band of dark gray clouds and few drop of rain. Temp: 14.72c>25c; Humidity:
90%<58%; Bar.Pressure: 28.55<27.88;
Raptor Observations:
Slow but steady trickle of birds throughout the day with a couple of
"bursts" with 4-7 birds at a time like the group of 1 merlin, 2 kestrel, 2
sharp-shinned, and 2 cooper's. The merlin took after one of the kestrels.
No eagles but we had a 3-falcon day including a low adult Peregrine Falcon
to slowly sail in and directly over.
First vultures up at the gap not until 10:57 EST.
Non-raptor Observations:
A few Chimney Swifts(7) and only 51 Tree Swallows.
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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
