Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 20, 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 13 92 125
Bald Eagle 6 121 128
Northern Harrier 6 20 21
Sharp-shinned Hawk 23 119 122
Cooper's Hawk 6 35 40
Northern Goshawk 0 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 3 8
Broad-winged Hawk 1764 7868 7994
Red-tailed Hawk 4 32 46
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 2 2
American Kestrel 3 98 105
Merlin 2 36 36
Peregrine Falcon 2 11 11
Unknown Accipiter 0 4 4
Unknown Buteo 0 1 2
Unknown Falcon 0 6 6
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 1 11 14
Mississippi Kite 0 5 6
Total: 1830 8465 8671
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 17:00:00
Total observation time: 10 hours
Official Counter: Vic Laubach
Observers: Brenda Tekin, Dave Hunter, Gabriel Mapel, Josh Laubach,
Rose Thomas
Visitors:
Many visitors today including: Dave Fischer (NC), Bill Nettlehurst,
Jennifer Jowdy, Ezra Staengl, Walt Childs, Marshall Faintich, Ed Lewis,
folks from the Northern Neck Audubon Society (Melissa Ciross, Joe Cooney,
Brant Marshall) and others.
Weather:
Very mild SE breeze early increasing to moderate SE wind after 2pm. Very
hazy with some fog rolling in a bit in the morning. Low clouds persisted
throughout afternoon, which often hid birds briefly as they would rise into
the clouds. 20.5-26c temps. Few clouds early, 50% clouds at 11am, then
60-85% cloudy thereafter. Visibility only 10km.
Raptor Observations:
A slow start, but the afternoon was more busy. Six Bald Eagles: 9:39
2nd-YR, 1:45 pair of 1st-YR, 2:23 pair of 2nd-YR, 2:46 AD. Broad-winged
Hawk hourly count: 32 (8-9am), 32 (9-10am), 17 (10-11am), 90 (11-12pm), 9
(12-1pm), 297 (1-2pm), 50 (2-3pm), 1236 (3-4pm), 1 (4-5pm). First bird
7:15am Sharp-shinned. Last bird 5:30pm Osprey.
Non-raptor Observations:
331 Monarchs. A very distant line of 19 Snow Geese were observed out to the
west (barely scope-birds) flying southward. 1 Yellow-bellied Cuckoo, 57
Chimney Swift, 3 hummingbird, 1 Killdeer, a pair of Short/Long-billed
Dowitcher, 16 Red-headed Woodpecker, 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch, 1 RC Kinglet,
8 Rose-breasted Grosbeak, 3 Magnolia Warbler, 3 American Redstart, plus
hundreds of other warblers/vireos flying across the gap 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
