Snickers Gap Hawkwatch
20 Miles West of Leesburg, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 16, 2005
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 18 84 93
Bald Eagle 0 40 50
Northern Harrier 1 11 14
Sharp-shinned Hawk 33 130 135
Cooper's Hawk 5 29 29
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 9 10
Broad-winged Hawk 106 1463 1525
Red-tailed Hawk 1 57 61
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 0 20 21
Merlin 0 1 1
Peregrine Falcon 0 0 0
Unknown 0 11 11
Total: 164 1855 1950
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Observation start time: 07:00:00
Observation end time: 16:30:00
Total observation time: 9.5 hours
Official Counter: Todd M. Day
Observers: BJ Little, Bob Abrams, Joan Boudreau, Lad Topolsky
Visitors:
A man named Gary; didn't get his last name.
Weather:
Visibility was close to 100 yards when I arrived at eight AM EDT, but
lifted to the point I could see a horizon at about nine-thirty. First
bird was at ten-thirty. That would be the first two-plus wasted hours.
Weather turned out OK, with the perfect mixture of clouds, wind (easterly,
if not a little too light), and obserers.
At three-thirty, a thunder storm rolled in and lasted about an hour. I
stuck it out, but didn't see another bird. Another two hours wasted.
Raptor Observations:
A very encouraging early flurry of Broad-wingeds that came to a screeching
halt for a couple hours. A nice day for Osprey and Sharp-shinneds. I'm
thinking somewhere upstream someone had a good day today. At least I'm
hoping that.
Two Black Vultures stayed a spell on the dead locust (about two hours).
Non-raptor Observations:
A good day for the other stuff. Two new Snickers species (as far as I
know): a Green Heron flew by during the rain, and eighteen Wild Turkeys
stepped off the trail, amassed in the parking lot for a minute or so, then
retreated back into the woods. I could tell they wanted to ask me what I
was doing, but I was equally curious and beat them to it.
Chimney Swift: 50+
Cedar Waxwing: 100+
Scarlet Tanager: 17
Hummingbird: 13
Blue Jay: 50+
Traill's Flycatcher: 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker: 2
Red-eyed Vireo: 1
Pileated Woodpecker: 2
Common Raven: 15
Red-headed Woodpecker: 1 immature
American Robin: 30
Hairy Woodpecker: 1
Eastern Towhee: 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker: 1
American Redstart: 1
Carolina Chickadee: 5
Eastern Screech-Owl: 1
Tufted Titmouse: 4
American Goldfinch: 12
Monarch Butterfly: 60
No dogs. Not a one.
Predictions:
I'll leave it up to, in the words of Steven Morrissey, someone with a big
nose who knows. It's Broad-winged season, and the more I hang around
Snickers with weather and the pipeline in mind, the less I know.
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Report submitted by Todd Day (blkvulture@xxxxxxx)
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