Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 18, 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 33 72 105
Bald Eagle 83 103 110
Northern Harrier 6 12 13
Sharp-shinned Hawk 12 15 18
Cooper's Hawk 12 16 21
Northern Goshawk 1 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 3 8
Broad-winged Hawk 3745 3900 4026
Red-tailed Hawk 8 23 37
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 2 2 2
American Kestrel 64 73 80
Merlin 21 27 27
Peregrine Falcon 5 7 7
Unknown Accipiter 1 1 1
Unknown Buteo 0 1 2
Unknown Falcon 4 5 5
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 5 9 12
Mississippi Kite 1 5 6
Total: 4004 4275 4481
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 17:45:00
Total observation time: 10.75 hours
Official Counter: Gabriel Mapel
Observers: John Rowlett, Rose Thomas, Vic Laubach
Visitors:
Jennifer Jowdy, Bill Nettlehorst (Fond du Lac, WI), Dave Fischer (Cary,
NC), Rollie Lawless, Daniel Mapel, and a few others.
Weather:
What a crazy weather day! It started out clear and cool with moderate SW
wind. By 8am rain arrived and we had off and on rain until 10:30 with
minimal fog. Starting at 11am, visibility improved and cloud cover
gradually diminished from 100-10%. The most dynamic and unusual weather of
the day was the ferocious WNW winds of 45MPH with stronger gusts that broke
branches off trees, blew over our scopes, and impeded walking from
11am-1pm. For the rest of the day, the wind was a bit less impeding though
still very strong. 22.7-19.0C temps.
Raptor Observations:
When we arrived this morning and quickly tallied those first few raptors we
were hopeful for a good flight, but little did we know this would become
one of the most epic days in the history of Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch! In
addition to tallying nearly 4,000 Broad-winged Hawks, we ended up breaking
four all-time records for the watch today. First, at 12:20pm an immature
Mississippi Kite flew down the east side of the gap giving some nice views.
This was the sixth kite of the season, breaking the previous season record
of five set in 2016. Thanks to the kite as well as two other uncommon
raptors (a Golden Eagle and Northern Goshawk) we had tied the single day
record for most number of raptor species (12), but we had not yet had a
Sharp-shinned Hawk. One appeared just a few minutes later at 12:26 and for
the first time in the history of the watch, we made it to 13 species in one
day! As if that wasn't enough, a Red-shouldered Hawk at 1:20 took us to 14
species less than an hour later. At 12:59 we tallied Merlin #11 for the
day which broke the previous single day record for Merlin of 10 set on
10/15/05. The Merlins kept on coming and by the end of the day we more
than doubled the previous record! The final record we set, but perhaps the
most noteworthy part of the day, was the single day record for Bald Eagles.
Between 2-3pm we surpassed the previous single day record of 32 Bald
Eagles set on 9/3/17. The following hour we tallied another 31 Eagles and
by the end of the day we had more than doubled the record with the final,
unbelievable count of 83 Bald Eagles today!
We definitely had to work hard for the birds today as many were distant,
and due to the high winds they were flying fast. At many times we couldn't
even keep our scopes steady! We were rewarded near the end of the day with
a few nice, fairly close-in Broad-wing kettles. Hourly BW Count: 0 (7-9),
25 (9-10), 0 (10-11), 2 (11-12), 10 (12-1), 168 (1-2), 1,939 (2-3), 1,166
(3-4), 321 (4-5), 114 (5-5:45).
Bald Eagle flight: 48 adults (7:35, 7:35, 10:54, 10:54, 11:16, 12:02, 1:10,
1:16, 1:20, 1:20, 1:20, 1:25, 1:43, 1:43, 1:49, 1:57, 1:57, 2:10, 2:10,
2:20, 2:33, 2:35, 2:46, 2:46, 2:47, 2:59, 2:59, 3:01, 3:01, 3:03, 3:03,
3:17, 3:24, 3:24, 3:27, 3:31, 3:31, 3:34, 3:34, 3:34, 3:44, 3:44, 3:52,
4:12, 4:16, 4:16, 4:33, 5:01), 30 immature (11:23 1st-YR, 11:49 2nd-YR,
11:53 unaged immature, 1:23 2nd-YR, 2:16 1st-YR, 2:20 2nd-YR, 2:42 1st-YR,
2:49 3rd-YR, 3:03 1st-YR, 3:06 1st-YR x3, 3:12 1st-YR, 3:24 1st-YR, 3:27
1st-YR, 3:31 1st-YR, 3:31 2nd-YR, 3:34 1st-YR x2, 3:41 1st-YR, 3:46 2nd-YR,
4:12 2nd-YR, 4:36 1st-YR, 4:51 1st-YR, 5:07 2nd-YR), 4 4th-YR (10:54, 3:06,
3:12, 5:19), and 1 unaged (3:20).
Unaged Northern Goshawk at 11:40. Immature Golden Eagle at 10:56 and adult
Golden Eagle at 1:24. Five Peregrine Falcons (11:25 unaged, 1:28 unaged,
1:59 adult, 3:12 adult, 3:52 immature). First Raptor: 7:19 Merlin, Last
Raptor: 5:31 Kestrel.
Non-raptor Observations:
A decent day for non-raptors as well. Highlights included 71 Common
Nighthawks, 236 swifts, 7 hummingbirds, 10 Red-headed Woodpeckers, 8
ravens, 20 Tree Swallows, 1 Bank Swallow, 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, warblers
(2 Cape May, 1 BT Blue, 2 Redstart, 2 Common Yellowthroat), 3 Scarlet
Tanagers, 1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and 39 Monarch Butterflies.
Predictions:
Sunny and warm with light north wind. Hopefully many more raptors!
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Report submitted by Gabriel Mapel (birdmangabriel@xxxxxxxxx)
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
