Snickers Gap Hawkwatch
20 Miles West of Leesburg, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Nov 21, 2005
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 0 1 242
Bald Eagle 0 31 190
Northern Harrier 0 43 138
Sharp-shinned Hawk 0 106 1833
Cooper's Hawk 0 46 356
Northern Goshawk 0 1 6
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 63 156
Broad-winged Hawk 0 0 6825
Red-tailed Hawk 1 674 1718
Rough-legged Hawk 1 2 2
Golden Eagle 0 5 13
American Kestrel 0 0 139
Merlin 0 0 40
Peregrine Falcon 0 1 17
Unknown 0 11 89
Total: 2 984 11764
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 5 hours
Official Counter: Larry Brindza
Observers:
Visitors:
Nada, zero, zip! Not even anyone to ask me what I was doing there!
Weather:
The day started off with 100% cloud cover. The temperatures were 8 to 11
degrees centigrade over the count period. Wind was from the West at 0 to 1
on the Beaufort scale for 4 of the 5 count hours. At about 12:10 the wind
started blowing in from the East and exactly 30 minutes later the expected
rain came.
Raptor Observations:
When the wind shifted from West to East, I saw my only two raptors. One
adult Red-tailed hawk and...one adult-male Rough-legged Hawk! The RL flew
just above tree top level south along the ridge and followed Rt. 601 south
at 12:24. The light-morph male RL had two dark tail bands, dark marked
breast and belly, dark carpal patches, and a dark band on the trailing
edges of the wings. The rest of the hawk was very light. Both hawks had to
flap most of their way through due to the weak East wind. Both hawks were
scoped at 30X WA.
Non-raptor Observations:
Other birds flying were 139 Robins in flocks of 57, 37, 12, 27, and 6.
There were also 6 Goldfinches and one Raven.
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Report submitted by Larry Brindza (ljbrindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Site Description:
Snickers Gap Hawkwatch was established in 1990. It is located in
northern Virginia, on the Clarke and Loudoun County line. It is reached
by taking VA Route 7 to the county line, which runs atop the ridge at
Snickers Gap. On the south side of Route 7 is a commuter parking lot.
The count is conducted from there. It is a volunteer site, and is counted
in fall only, from late August until late November or early December.
There are no facilities at the site, so bring a snack, drinks, and a
chair. Many of the birds can be distant, and a scope is helpful.
As a volunteer site, we are always looking to increase our pool of
counters. We are eager to train those who have never counted, but are
skilled with hawk identification. We are also willing to pair
inexperienced observers with experienced counters. Please contact the
compiler, Todd Day, at blkvulture@xxxxxxx with any questions or if you are
interested in participating in the count.
Directions to site:
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