Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 23, 2015
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 0 1 213
Bald Eagle 3 48 228
Northern Harrier 0 16 75
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 81 1486
Cooper's Hawk 2 31 243
Northern Goshawk 0 3 6
Red-shouldered Hawk 2 32 60
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 10497
Red-tailed Hawk 10 381 571
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 3 9 21
American Kestrel 0 0 187
Merlin 0 1 47
Peregrine Falcon 0 1 40
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 18
Unknown Buteo 0 2 7
Unknown Falcon 0 0 10
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 5 30
Total: 21 611 13739
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 09:30:00
Observation end time: 15:15:00
Total observation time: 5.75 hours
Official Counter: Brenda Tekin, Gabriel Mapel
Observers: Brenda Tekin, Gabriel Mapel
Visitors:
Jennifer Jowdy spent the afternoon at the watch braving the cold
temperatures but got to see two of the Golden Eagles. The only other
visitor was Mary Mapel who got to see the Raven carrying an onion ring.
Weather:
Bone-chilling COLD! Temperature at freezing point at start of count (0.0C)
increasing to a day high of only 2.2C at noon and then dropping back down
to 1.1-1.3C for rest of the afternoon. Wind once again out of the NW but
not as strong as yesterday and late in the afternoon it died down even more
and was more out of the SW. Cloud cover: a painful bright, all blue sky
with only a few wispies that never seemed to last more than a few seconds
before evaporating. Another day with very clear visibility.
Raptor Observations:
The day started out hopeful with five raptors in the first half hour but
then it all calmed down and turned out to be pretty slow for the rest of
the day but we did manage another decent Eagle day.
Within the first 20 minutes of the count counter Brenda Tekin picked up on
day's first Accipiter, a Cooper's, circling over the "Cut Through" to the
east while I located THREE adult Bald Eagles rising up in front of the
ridge, just below the Cooper's. Two of the adult BEs tracked straight
southward down the west side of the gap at 9:54am with the third bird
heading more SW and passing closer by. Within 20 minutes, a low-flying
adult Bald Eagle appeared heading north coming from where the last one
disappeared to the south, and was seen milling around the ridge to the
north several times throughout the day but never passing by again, and
therefore had to be removed from the day's count as a southbound migrant.
BE #4 for the day, the third migrating, a 3rd-year bird passed by at
2:30pm.
At 10:23am a beautiful juvenile Golden Eagle passed by flying down the west
side of the gap giving stunning views of the bright white base of the tail
with black terminal band at tip. The bird's apparent identical twin, a
second juvenile Golden, followed suit on the same flight path at 12:42pm.
Day's third GE, an adult, passed by down the east side of the gap at 1:17.
Two more Red-shouldered Hawks today but only 10 Red-tails migrating past
heading south, despite a whole bunch milling around all over the sky this
afternoon, most of which seemed content to just circle and kite for
seemingly forever and not migrate.
Non-raptor Observations:
At 9:40am it seemed as if flocks of large birds were all over the sky.
Three different Turkey Vulture flocks, totaling 86 birds, obviously
migrating, headed south down the east side of the gap followed by a very
unusually large group of 32 migrating Common Ravens and then a murder of 22
Crows (species unknown). Other birds seen flying over today included 8
additional Ravens (one of which flew over carrying an Onion Ring, just like
the Raven yesterday!), 38 additional Crow sp. plus 2 Fish Crows which flew
over calling, 4 Eastern Bluebirds, and 5 Red-winged Blackbirds.
Predictions:
Another sunny day with somewhat warmer temperatures and light southwest
wind.
========================================================================
Report submitted by Gabriel Mapel (birdmangabriel@xxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.rockfishgaphawkwatch.org
