What a day for broadwings!! Very different from a year ago!!
Bill
----- Original Message -----
From: <reports@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2010 8:09 PM
Subject: [Va-bird] HSR: Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch (Sep 15) Broad-Winged
Hawkshave arrived!
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 15, 2010
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 17 87 107
Bald Eagle 8 42 55
Northern Harrier 5 11 13
Sharp-shinned Hawk 10 65 81
Cooper's Hawk 4 22 26
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 1 1
Broad-winged Hawk 4754 5136 5188
Red-tailed Hawk 4 27 36
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 1 1
American Kestrel 11 75 80
Merlin 1 2 2
Peregrine Falcon 1 1 1
Unknown Accipiter 0 0 1
Unknown Buteo 0 3 3
Unknown Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 0 4 7
Total: 4816 5477 5602
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 18:00:00
Total observation time: 10 hours
Official Counter: Multiple Counters
Observers: Brenda Tekin, Dave Hunter, Gordy Adamski, Vic Laubach
Visitors:
Plenty of visitors today, many of whom left before the big BWH flights
though. (forgive spelling mistakes please) Pete Nebel, Lois Gebhardt,
Gretchen Gehrett, John Rollett, Dale Miller, Lee Boatwright, Judy Bonnett,
Janet Paisley, Penny Warren, Madis Leivits, and Nancy.
Weather:
Sunny and warm (18.0-26.5C). Clear blue skies until 1pm, then partly cloudy
for a couple hours, mostly cloudy from 4-5pm, and becoming clear again by
5pm. Very light breezes from the E/SE becoming completely still by 5pm.
Raptor Observations:
BANG AGAIN! ... Here we go! With very little warning, the Broad-Winged
Hawks have begun their massive southward migration with quite a BANG! with
4,754 in total today! The bulk of the flight occurred within a 4 hour
period in the afternoon, summarized as follows: 8-11am (32), 11am-12pm
(33), 12-1pm (56), 1-2pm (455), 2-3pm (1144), 3-4pm (1531), 4-5pm (1346),
5-6pm (157). Before the clouds appeared, extremely high birds were spotted
which were barely visible in the clear blue sky even with a spotting scope.
We suspect that a lot of birds passed over unseen because of this which may
help explain lower numbers of birds reported to the north. Once the clouds
came in, spotting became pretty easy. Most of the birds were streaming
southward very high, pausing only a few times to form kettles. Maybe the
winds were much stronger at that elevation. The entire afternoon sky was
constantly full of Broad-Winged Hawks streaming over! Counters were
constantly clicking away, and at several times two counters were clicking
away at the same time in totally different parts of the sky just to keep
up. Quite exhilarating!
11 different species of raptors were represented today including our first
Peregrine Falcon (2:20pm) and our first Red-Shouldered Hawk. 8 Bald Eagles
today: adult BE (9:48am, 10:50am, 1:07pm, 2:48pm), and immature BE (2:44pm,
3:59pm, 4:05pm, 5:05pm). One BE flew right through a large kettle of BWHs
(they made room for him)!
Non-raptor Observations:
Monarchs and dragonflies filled the sky all day! At least 515 Monarchs were
counted (not including those unable to count while counting BWHs). 3
Flickers. 7 Hummingbirds. Scarlet Tanager. Lots of Chimney Swifts. A big
Praying Mantis on a nearby shrub. Lots of Stinkbugs flying around landing
on peoples' heads, binoculars, chairs, etc.
Predictions:
Warm with 30% chance of isolated thunderstorms.
========================================================================
Report submitted by Vic Laubach (laubach@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, VA information may be found at:
http://www.rockfishgaphawkwatch.org
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