Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 16, 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 5 85 134
Bald Eagle 3 105 114
Northern Harrier 2 5 7
Sharp-shinned Hawk 18 59 67
Cooper's Hawk 7 30 42
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 11 14
Broad-winged Hawk 2561 5496 5594
Red-tailed Hawk 0 31 48
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 1 2 2
American Kestrel 2 38 41
Merlin 2 7 7
Peregrine Falcon 0 3 4
Unknown Accipiter 0 3 3
Unknown Buteo 0 1 6
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 2 6
Mississippi Kite 0 2 3
Total: 2601 5880 6092
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 16:45:00
Total observation time: 9.75 hours
Official Counter: Vic Laubach
Observers: Baxter Beamer, Brenda Tekin, Dave Hunter, Josh Laubach,
Mark Johnson
Visitors:
Wade Hildreth, Bob Apperson, Lois Kauffman, Janis Stone, Jennifer Jowdy,
Shannon and Chris Updike, Betty Mooney, Jenny Gaden, Diane Lepkowski,
William Leigh, and many others.
Weather:
A beautiful day with awesome clouds! Moderate NW winds most of the day
calming to very mild to no breezes after 2pm. 18-26.1C. Completely overcast
early and 80% cloud cover after 11am for rest of day. Lots of big clouds
ranging from bright white to deep, dark grey and everything in between. A
super backdrop for all the high migrating raptors! Clear visibility.
Raptor Observations:
Another huge BW day with plenty of kettles from 10-500 birds each. More
kettling than yesterday with lots of streaming of birds between kettles.
Most BWs appeared to the NE and flew overhead or down east side of
mountains. However, a fair number were spotted way out to the west over
Waynesboro trying to slip by. Just when we thought the day was over, the
biggest kettle of the day (about 500 BWs) were spotted at 4:30pm out to the
east over the far end of the Inn. Hourly BW count: 9-10 (29), 10-11 (228),
11-12 (417), 12-1 (439), 1-2 (0, lunchtime), 2-3 (362), 3-4 (515), 4-4:45
(571).
Adult Golden Eagle spotted way out to the west.
Three Bald Eagles: 12:05 AD, 12:21 2nd-YR, 3:20 AD.
Non-raptor Observations:
We didn't see a vulture until 9:25am. 40 Monarchs. 166 Swifts, 13
Hummingbirds, 1 Kingfisher, 27 Red-headed Woodpeckers (including 2 groups
of 5), 1 Tennessee Warbler, 1 BTB Warbler. Lots and lots of flyover
warblers went unidentified,
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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
