Snickers Gap Hawkwatch
20 Miles West of Leesburg, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 24, 2003
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 0
Osprey 8 116 129
Bald Eagle 3 56 62
Northern Harrier 1 30 35
Sharp-shinned Hawk 31 352 354
Cooper's Hawk 5 44 45
Northern Goshawk 0 0 0
Red-shouldered Hawk 2 17 17
Broad-winged Hawk 886 9548 9576
Red-tailed Hawk 13 83 83
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 2 2
American Kestrel 14 87 87
Merlin 0 9 10
Peregrine Falcon 4 10 10
Unknown 2 17 17
Total: 969 10371 10427
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 17:00:00
Total observation time: 9 hours
Official Counter: Jesse Fulton
Observers: BJ Westervelt, Ian Topolsky, Jon Little, Mike Reyman
Visitors:
Laddy- My old man, and always ready for a big-one...
Weather:
Electric blue skies were in store for us today, all day. We had 3-4 puny
clouds that attemtped to survive the ride from "Minnie" to out-of-bounds
in the 10-11 'oclock hour (EST), but they suffered a quick demise. Winds
were out of the WNW at force 2 on the Beaufort scale for the first few
hours but eventually wrapped around to the E, gradually tapering off to
nothing by the end. Humidity was extremely low and Temp topped off at 64F.
Observations:
The bulk of our birds slid through in the 12-2 o'clock hours, almost
undetected. We had hesitantly relinquished possession of the horizon when
we moved back into the shade of the treeline, preparing ourselves for a
long and trying day of looking straight up overhead- and that's exactly
what we did... Eventually we picked up on a flightpath of some streaming
BWs that was only visible in a 10-15 Degree space directly over us and
nearly out-of-bounds. The tarp and sleeping bag was whipped out shortly
after the muscle-aches set in, but the birds scattered shortly after the 2
hour push and began popping up in all directions for the rest of the day.
The breakdown of eagles is as follows:
2- ad, 1-juv. *Also, still no recent Osprey that have been packing a
lunch...
6 Ravens, 35+ Blue Jay (up alot), 50+ Cedar Waxwing, 1 Red-headed
Woodpecker, 1 Magnolia Warbler and 30+ Monarchs.
Predictions:
"Are we pretty much done with BWs now?" The eightball responds
confidently today, "IT IS DECIDEDLY SO"........
*Still 4 and 1 for the eightball.
========================================================================
Report submitted by Ian Topolsky (ict_earth@xxxxxxxxx)
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.
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
