Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 24, 2015
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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 1 213
Bald Eagle 5 53 233
Northern Harrier 1 17 76
Sharp-shinned Hawk 3 84 1489
Cooper's Hawk 1 32 244
Northern Goshawk 0 3 6
Red-shouldered Hawk 2 34 62
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 10497
Red-tailed Hawk 15 396 586
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 1 10 22
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: 28 639 13767
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Observation start time: 08:30:00
Observation end time: 15:45:00
Total observation time: 7.25 hours
Official Counter: Gabriel Mapel
Observers:
Visitors:
Martin Powers, Brad Peebles, Mary Mapel, and Ben Pumphrey.
Weather:
Much more pleasant than yesterday with warmer temperatures (2.2-6.8C), a
few more clouds (1-10% cloud cover), and lighter wind from the SW. Clear
visibility, once again.
Raptor Observations:
A very slow start with no raptors until after 10am but then a slow but
steady trickle of Buteos and a few Accipiters which all stopped flying by
1:30pm. A few Eagles and a Harrier kept trickling through all the way to
the last hour.
The day was highlighted by another very nice Eagle flight with 1 Golden
(2:59 subadult) and 5 Bald Eagles (11:16 adult pair, 12:28 adult, 12:57
1st-year, and 2:35 2nd-year which flew nearly straight over but was SO HIGH
that even such a large bird was not even a dot to the naked eye and was
tough to see in binoculars!). Three additional Bald Eagles (3:26 adult and
3:34 4th-year and 1st-year flying together) did not cross over to be
counted as migrants.
First Bird-10:11 SS, Last Bird-3:09 NH.
Non-raptor Observations:
A few things flying over including 2 Common Loons, a flock of 32
Ring-billed Gulls, 136 Fish Crows, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 Flicker, 35
Waxwings, 2 Horned Larks, 6 Eastern Bluebirds, 1 Red-winged Blackbird, 30
American Goldfinches, and 1 Pine Siskin.
Predictions:
Similar to today but with SE Wind which might make for a very slow raptor
flight, but we'll keep our fingers crossed for some birds moving through.
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Report submitted by Gabriel Mapel (birdmangabriel@xxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch information may be found at:
http://www.rockfishgaphawkwatch.org