Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 27, 2020
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 2 147 214
Bald Eagle 6 177 243
Northern Harrier 2 19 25
Sharp-shinned Hawk 81 565 573
Cooper's Hawk 20 105 118
Northern Goshawk 0 1 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 3 18 26
Broad-winged Hawk 33 29298 29553
Red-tailed Hawk 5 102 150
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 3 3
American Kestrel 2 99 115
Merlin 0 24 26
Peregrine Falcon 0 14 14
Unknown Accipiter 0 4 5
Unknown Buteo 1 7 7
Unknown Falcon 0 4 4
Unknown Eagle 0 1 1
Unknown Raptor 0 13 17
Mississippi Kite 0 2 3
Swainson's Hawk 0 0 1
Total: 155 30603 31099
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Observation start time: 07:30:00
Observation end time: 15:00:00
Total observation time: 7.5 hours
Official Counter: Vic Laubach
Observers: Allen Larner, Janet Paisley
Visitors:
Tim Burnett, Jon Shoup, Sharon and Jay Landis, Barett family of five,
Barbara Payne, Jim Childress, Gordon and Nancy Archer (Richmond), LInda
Goodling, Jennifer Salmon plus a few others not named.
Weather:
Beautiful day with temperatures of 15-24C. Partly sunny with 30-80% cloud
cover - mostly big white/grey cumulus clouds changing to grey/dark grey
cumulus clouds in last hour. Winds early were moderate W - changing to mild
E breezes after 1pm.
Raptor Observations:
Very nice raptor activity between 10am-1pm with the sky always having some
sort of raptor to view at any given time. Raptor activity severely dropped
in the final hour. Almost all raptors were flying quite high in front of
the clouds (very few observed rising above the ridge). The birds were also
fairly scattered across the sky today with no real pattern of flight. Six
Bald Eagles (3 adult and 3 immature). A female and an immature Northern
Harrier. The immature harrier was the final bird of the day at 2:40pm
giving great looks on the east side of the gap.
Non-raptor Observations:
Hundreds of migrating warblers (most went unidentified) and other
passerines crossing Rockfish Gap in the morning hours. 107 Monarchs. Other
birds include: 69 swifts, 2 hummingbird, 374 Blue Jay, 3 Yellow-bellied
Sapsucker, 3 Red-headed Woodpecker, 3 Red-breasted Nuthatch, 9 Tree
Swallow, 1 Swainson's Thrush, 1 Black-and-white Warbler, 4 Cape May
Warbler, 3 Magnolia Warbler, 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler, 2
Black-throated Green Warbler, 2 Scarlet Tanager, 2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Two drones spotted flying over the gap today.
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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
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