Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, VA
Waynesboro, Virginia, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Sep 11, 2005
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
BV 0 0 0
TV 0 0 0
OS 8 22 39
BE 1 3 17
NH 4 8 10
SS 2 17 32
CH 2 8 12
NG 0 0 0
RS 0 0 0
BW 183 399 583
RT 0 17 52
RL 0 0 0
GE 0 0 0
AK 3 17 20
ML 0 0 0
PG 0 0 0
UA 0 0 2
UB 0 2 9
UF 0 0 0
UE 0 0 0
UR 1 3 3
Total: 204 496 779
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Observation start time: 08:00:00
Observation end time: 16:30:00
Total observation time: 8.5 hours
Official Counter: Brenda Tekin
Observers:
Visitors:
Hats off to the following folks who helped out today:
Pat Alther
Robert Butler
Marlene Condon
William Leigh (Bridgewater)
Donna Lewis
Robert Plank
Rose Thomas (DC area)
Weather:
Breezy N to NW wind 20-28km/h decreasing to 6-11km/h by 10 a.m. EST and
changing to variable then SE by 11 a.m.;
Temp: 19c>29.5c then dropping to 24c by 2 p.m.EST.;
Humidity: 81% < 46%;
Bar.Pressure: 1021>1023;
Cloud Cover: 0 clouds increasing to partly cloudy by 10 a.m. and then
mostly cloudy by 12 p.m. with the nice white puffy cirrus/cummulus clouds
against bright blue sky. By 3 p.m. clouds were quickly disappearing and
near non-existent by 3:30 p.m. making it difficult to find high sailing
birds.
Visibility: very poor early in the morning with thick, gray soupy haze.
With cold front pushing through, air quality vastly improved.
Raptor Observations:
Boy, what a day it was! Today was our first triple-digit day. A big Thank
You to all the folks who helped. It was another day of birds all over the
sky. Northern Harrier to the left; Broad-wing to the right. Make that
Broad-wing high overhead; Osprey to the right..And so it went. Most were
high sailing, often times lost in increasing patches of bright blue sky as
the afternoon wore on. Quite a few were further out east of the ridge
turning southward well south of our observation point. By late afternoon
with loss of clouds to the north and east, we were facing south over roof
of the hotel to catch high sailing BW, sometimes slowing down to kettle
against the only remaining clouds further south along the ridge.
Two pairs of Northern Harrier - 2 non-adult male @ 11:58; 2 at 3:23; While
following a single distant NOHA, William Leigh observed it catching up to
2nd NOHA further to the south along with a few kettling BW.
BW hourly flights today: 9-10:1; 10-11:5; 11-12:12; 12-1:27; 1-2:32;
2-3:75; 3-4:31
And, for the icing on the cake, our four o'clock eagle, fashionably late
by 18 minutes, a stunning adult Bald Eagle that flew so low overhead I
thought I saw it wink! Ok, maybe a bit of exaggeration here, but it did
look down upon us as we stared up with mouths wide open!
Here is link to web pictures of our 4:00 (EST) BE:
(copy entire web address (link) below and paste to web browser address.)
http://home.ntelos.net/~btkin/rockfish_gap_hawk_watch/link_pages/BaldEagle4_link.htm
Non-raptor Observations:
Yellow-breasted Chat in holly bushes at front entrance to the Inn.
Hummingbird: 4
Monarch Butterfly: 26
Chimney Swift
American Tree Swallow
Webster, an adorable Yorkipoo (or Yorkypoo), from Lexington,VA. (1/2
Yorkish Terrier and 1/2 poodle)
Predictions:
more sunshine
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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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