Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, VA
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 19, 2005
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
BV 0 0 0
TV 0 0 0
OS 12 70 87
BE 0 5 19
NH 0 15 17
SS 11 85 100
CH 2 22 26
NG 0 0 0
RS 0 1 1
BW 597 2512 2696
RT 4 36 71
RL 0 0 0
GE 0 0 0
AK 2 56 59
ML 0 1 1
PG 1 1 1
UA 0 1 3
UB 0 4 11
UF 0 1 1
UE 0 0 0
UR 0 8 8
Total: 629 2818 3101
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Observation start time: 08:15:00
Observation end time: 16:15:00
Total observation time: 8 hours
Official Counter: Brenda Tekin
Observers: Nancy Corwin
Visitors:
Elizabeth Hunter and Doug Hibshman from NC.
Alan Richardson helped find some of those high sailing birds.
Weather:
REMINDER: WE REPORT IN STANDARD TIME
Breezy SE wind during early hours changing to variable. We noted upper
level seemed stationary, middle layer with wind tracking from NW and lower
level SE wind. Everything seemed to come together by 1 p.m. with
diminishing winds 5-8 km/h S - SSW. Cloud cover started out with few
wispys increasing to overcast (75%). Several times upper layer of white
cirrus and blue sky blocked out by lower level of dark, threatening
clouds. By 2 pm clouds moving out to only few clouds.
Temp: Things warmed up today starting from 23.5c > 29c;
Humidity: 57% dropping to 47%;
Visibilty: 10 km with thick haze improving to 18 km.
Raptor Observations:
First bird of the day, a low Osprey at 8:51.
When low dark clouds moved in under the upper level of bright blue sky and
white cirrus clouds, some of the birds dropped below the cloud cover.
Unlike yesterday morning's flight, things were a bit slow in starting off.
As dark clouds moved out and winds stablelized to more S to SSW, birds
were flying pretty much overhead or little to left heading SW. Many were
small specs seen at limit of unaided eye but there were quite a few,
including a small kettle of high fliers found quite by sheer luck at very
limit of 10x42 binoculars. Although majority of BW were high sailing
today, bulk of the Osprey were low, some coming up from below eye level,
flapping to gain lift to get up and over the hillside and parking lot!
Returning from a 4-minute much needed five-minute break, circling high up
against a large white cloud was an impressive kettle of 27 BW! It was so
nice of them to wait for the counter to return before tracking SW over
parking lot where another small group of BW were kettling.
Alan Richardson took an extended lunch hour and was on hand when season's
first Peregrine Falcan sailed out of a cloud in company of two Black
Vulture at 1:31 pm.
BW hourly flight today: 9-10:1; 10-11:16; 11-12:112; 12-1:163; 1-2:193:
2-3:108 (included several kettles of 30+ each); 3-3:30:4
Non-raptor Observations:
Red-headed Woodpecker: 3;
Northern Flicker: 3
Monarch Butterfly: 48 (glad to see numbers have rebounded)
Predictions:
chance of rain with approaching front.
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Report submitted by Brenda Tekin (bt8x@xxxxxxxxxxxx)
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, VA information may be found at:
http://home.ntelos.net/~btkin/rockfish_gap_hawk_watch
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