Hughes River Gap, VA
east of Luray, VA, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 08, 2006
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 0 0 3
Bald Eagle 0 0 1
Northern Harrier 1 1 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 18 18 41
Cooper's Hawk 0 0 7
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 0 1
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 222
Red-tailed Hawk 0 0 4
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 1 1 2
Merlin 0 0 0
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown 1 1 4
Total: 21 21 287
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Observation start time: 06:00:00
Observation end time: 12:00:00
Total observation time: 6 hours
Official Counter: Two Dopes
Observers: Bruce Jones, Max Heath, Sue Heath
Visitors:
A few folks asked what we were up to, but most of the visitors to
Shenandoah went to places where you could actually see something.
Weather:
You pretty much had to be there to see it. Words aren't going to get it
right.
Where we sit is at 3100 feet at a gap that divides the Shenandoah Valley
from the Piedmont. To our west, a steep slope down to Luray and the
valley. To the east, a steep slope down to the Piedmont. While driving
to the site at six AM EDT, it was dry, with a high ceiling over the
Piedmont. As I started driving up the mountain, with Ian Topolsky behind
me, we hit some patches of fog and a little mist. As we ascended, the fog
got thicker, and at Skyline Drive, it was almost opaque. I had less than
twenty yards of visibility from the fog and the dark.
When we finally arrived to the site, it was the same story. When daybreak
came, we remained in heavy fog. We would occasionally steal a glimpse of
the valley, and see that aside from the fog was a beautiful undercast that
wiped out everything to our west, including the Massanutten range eleven
miles away. We had the impression it would break. Hour after hour we
flirted with sunlight and a blue sky to the east, but we remained socked
in, so much so that birds perched less than twenty yards away were blurry
from the fog.
At one PM EDT, we threw in the towel. However, we drove a little south
and east along the Drive, and found our way to Thoroughfare Mountain
Overlook, which has commanding views of the piedmont. It was quite a view
indeed. Looking back down to Hughes River Gap, we could see the entire
slope from the east, and then a dense blanket of clouds over the gap, and
over the Shenandoah Valley. It wasn't thick, as we could see over it, and
peaks beyond it. It was, however, blinding, and had we moved earlier, we
would have had a great time watching hawks. In twenty minutes at this
overlook, we probably saw about twenty or so hawks.
Raptor Observations:
Hawks were moving, but we saw very few in small breaks in the clouds to our
east.
Non-raptor Observations:
We decided to play the Big Sit game, and had the following by those rules:
Black Vulture, 2
Turkey Vulture, 6
Barred Owl, 1
Red-headed Woodpecker, 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker, 3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, 1
Downy Woodpecker, 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker, 10
Pileated Woodpecker, 1
Eastern Phoebe, 2
Blue-headed Vireo, 12
Blue Jay, 150
American Crow, 10
Common Raven, 4
Tree Swallow, 3
Chickadee, 5
Tufted Titmouse, 2
White-breasted Nuthatch, 2
Carolina Wren, 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet, 20
Ruby-crowned Kinglet, 10
Gray-cheeked Thrush, 1
Swainson's Thrush, 6
Hermit Thrush, 2
American Robin, 1
Northern Parula, 2
Magnolia Warbler, 1
Myrtle Warbler, 5
Bay-breasted Warbler, 2
Pine Warbler, 4
Western Palm Warbler, 5
Yellow Palm Warbler, 1
Common Yellowthroat, 1
Eastern Towhee, 3
Savannah Sparrow, 1, most out-of-place bird of the day
Song Sparrow, 2
White-throated Sparrow, 3
Slate-colored Junco, 30
An Ovenbird was seen in the woods, out of our circle. A merlin, an adult
Bald Eagle, and a couple Cooper's Hawks and Broad-wingeds were seen from
other spots along Skyline Drive.
Predictions:
Back to the grind of bed rest.
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Report submitted by Todd Day (blkvulture@xxxxxxx)
Site Description:
Stony Man Mountain sits at 4011 feet above sea level atop cliffs that are
weathered remnants of ancient lava beds. The panoramic view afforded from
these cliffs is roughly 270 degrees, spanning counter-clockwise from east
to south. It is the second highest peak in Shenandoah National Park. It
sits in Page County on the eastern edge near the Madison County line, and
looks down at the town of Luray.
However, since we weren't able to find any birds from atop Stony Man, we
decided to drop in elevation and conduct a watch from Hughes River Gap,
just north of Stony Man.
This is the first year that a concerted effort has been made to observe
migrant birds as they pass by the site. Not a full-time site, we're
hoping for one-hundred hours of observation in 2006, mostly between 1
September and mid-October and maybe a few days in November. Primarily
we'll count on weekends, and perhaps midweek following cold fronts.
Directions to site:
Find your way to Shenandoah National Park's Skyline Drive, and proceed to
mile approximately milepost 38. There is an scenic viewing area on the
west side of Skyline Drive and might be called Stony Man Mountain Viewing
or something similar. There is also a sign here that reads Hughes River
Gap. This is about a fifteen minute drive south from Thornton Gap where
US 211 crosses Skyline Drive. We watch from a large parking area that
overlooks Luray and has good horizon from ENE to W.
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