Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 31, 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 1 22 223
Bald Eagle 1 92 274
Northern Harrier 3 26 57
Sharp-shinned Hawk 63 1470 2057
Cooper's Hawk 14 269 387
Northern Goshawk 1 9 10
Red-shouldered Hawk 18 44 59
Broad-winged Hawk 1 1031 23588
Red-tailed Hawk 32 419 475
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 1 9 15
American Kestrel 2 115 276
Merlin 3 28 79
Peregrine Falcon 1 17 54
Unknown Accipiter 0 15 20
Unknown Buteo 0 3 6
Unknown Falcon 0 1 7
Unknown Eagle 0 0 1
Unknown Raptor 0 19 37
Mississippi Kite 0 1 10
Total: 141 3590 27635
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Observation start time: 08:15:00
Observation end time: 15:45:00
Total observation time: 7.5 hours
Official Counter: Gabriel Mapel
Observers: Ezra Staengl
Visitors:
Daniel Mapel, Eric Froelich, Jennifer Jowdy
Weather:
Very warm (T-shirt weather midday!) with 11.0-18.2C temps. Moderate W
winds until 12pm then gradually shifting to SE during the afternoon. Few
clouds early but a great sky with 50-80% cloud cover after 11am. Fairly
clear visibility but some haze in the distance.
Raptor Observations:
The day started out very slow but a constant flow of raptors from 9:15am
onwards. Excellent species diversity today with 13 raptor species counted!
The biggest surprise was an immature Broad-winged Hawk at 1:20pm. This is
surprisingly late in the season for a BW sighting and beat the previous
all-time late date of 10/29/1988. Ezra spotted a large and steady
Red-tail-like bird which turned out to be another immature Northern Goshawk
(9:53am). One Bald Eagle (1st-YR at 12:52pm) and a beautiful subadult
Golden Eagle at 2:14, which was species #13 and gave terrific views. Three
Northern Harriers (10:35 adult female, 10:52 adult male, 3:05 immature),
three Merlins (10:45, 1:02, 2:38), an an adult Peregrine Falcon at 11:43.
First Raptor: 8:43 SS, Last Raptor: 3:25 SS. The first vultures did not
appear until 10:09!
Non-raptor Observations:
1 Cormorant, 8 Fish Crows, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, 309 Robins, 101
Waxwings, 10 Purple Finches, 80 Pine Siskins (many flocks), 60 RW
Blackbirds, 1 Rusty Blackbird, 55 Grackles, 1 late Indigo Bunting, 15
Monarch Butterflies, and thousands of Ladybugs all over the ground and sky!
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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
