[Bristol-Birds] Re: Mendota flight is skimpy but it ain't over until the fat lady sings !
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:40:08 -0400
My math was bad in the first post and I
added the five days from Sept 2010
in error. The correction is below:
Example: last year (2010) in just five
days of passage starting on 23 Sept 2010,
the count was 2,641 Broad-wings counted
over Mendota with one day rained out to 0.
The flight day counts were 1140, 993, 95,
0, 319 and 94. That total is almost as much
as has passed Mendota this entire month.
Also corrected note that Harvey's Knob
at Roanoke is southwest of Rockfish Gap
and not southeast
Wallace Coffey
----- Original Message -----
From: Wallace Coffey
To: Bristol-birds
Sent: September 22, 2011 10:27
Subject: [Bristol-Birds] Mendota flight is skimpy but it ain't over until the
fat lady sings !
The winds of fall just aren't blowing in our favor at
Mendota Fire Tower this fall but it ain't over until
the fat lady sings.
There's been enough rain, wrong winds and cruddy
conditions to discourage the weather man.
The birding effort has not slacked but the flights
just haven't been in our favor.
The upstream hawk counts along the Virginia
Blue Ridge are suffocating with Broad-wings
and birders struggling to see the sky above
them due to the massive flights of hawks
floating past.
Snickers Gap, 20 Miles West of Leesburg, VA,
now has a fall total of 35,210 Broad-wings.
Mendota has a measly 2,676 Broad-wings
for the month of September.
Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, at the top of
the mountain on the interstate near
Waynesboro, VA has counted 26,768.
These upstream lookouts are traditional
big-flight sites along the Southern Appalachian
passage lanes. Mendota has never had such
staggering numbers.
Rockfish Gap has had more Broad-wings in
each of the last four out of five days than
Mendota has tallied this season.
The last five days of coverage at Rockfish
Gap have hit four days with 10,766; 3,730;
4,151; 4,260 for a four-day total of 22,907.
Harvey's Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway
at Roanoke has tallied 3,320 and is not
getting great numbers despite the fact they
are just 60 air miles southeast of Rockfish Gap.
The flight may be drifting off due south from
Rockfish Gap and small numbers or left
floating to the west along the Blue Ridge or
the Clinch Mountain.
Mendota is not down and out for the count.
With a little weather change and a
slight shift of the flight, the majority of this
year's Broad-wing flight at the Clinch
Mountain fire tower west of Bristol might
fly past in the week left before the first
of October. That could mean that most
of the September flight at Mendota could
fly over this weekend.
Example: last year (2010) in just five
days of passage starting on 23 Sept 2010,
the count was 3,541 Broad-wings counted
over Mendota with one day rained out to 0.
The flight day counts were 1140, 993, 95,
0, 319 and 94. That total is more than has
passed Mendota this entire month.
So we never know when it will break open
at Mendota and some really good flights
may push past.
Don't be sitting on your hands and not
holding your binoculars if a big flight in
the thousands pours past Mendota and
you have to wait to "get 'em next year."
Let's go birding. . . .
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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