This year marked the 48th season of fall raptor migration at Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch; one of the longest running hawk watch sites in North America! Our small group of volunteer counters were able to cover 93 out of a possible 108 days this season (10-year avg = 91 days) totaling 480 hours of effort (avg = 583). Poor weather canceled the count on 12 days, and only 3 days went uncounted due to unavailability of counters. In total, we recorded 32,974 migrating raptors this season, which is above our 10-year average of 28,524 raptors.
Among the common raptors, a big highlight was a new season record Bald Eagle count. We counted a total of 496 BALD EAGLE, surpassing the previous record of 480 last year (10-year avg = 345). Our OSPREY count of 223 was slightly lower than average (avg = 252). Our NORTHERN HARRIER count of 67 was average (avg = 66). Our count of 2,024 SHARP-SHINNED HAWK was slightly above average (avg = 1,898), however our count of 231 COOPER’S HAWK was well below average (avg = 317). Of the buteos, our count of 630 RED-TAILED HAWK was well below average (avg = 932), but our count of 97 RED-SHOULDERED HAWK was average (avg = 101). Our BROAD-WINGED HAWK count of 28,921 was above average (avg = 24,218)! The peak Broad-wing flight was significantly interrupted by bad weather this year. From Sep 19-22 we had 21,403 broad-wings, followed by 5 straight days of rain, then on Sep 28 we had 2,40 broad-wings, followed by 5 days of rain and fog, then came 3,916 broad-wings between Oct 4-5. It seems that these birds hunkered down during the rainy days and then continued their flight when the weather cleared. Our biggest broad-wing day was Sep 21 with 9,623 birds! Of the falcons, our counts of 122 AMERICAN KESTREL (avg = 200) and 33 PEREGRINE FALCON (avg = 41) were below average, but the MERLIN count of 71 was well above average (avg = 54) and was the second-highest season count on record (second only to 85 in 2018).
Among the uncommon raptors, a big highlight was an early Swainson’s Hawk on Aug 17 (avg = 0.7). Another exciting highlight this year were the Kites! We had a total of 13 Mississippi Kites (avg = 4.4) and an adult Swallow-tailed Kite (avg = 0)! On Aug 24 we were watching an immature Mississippi Kite flying away from us to the east whereupon it swooped upward to meet up with a beautiful adult Swallow-tailed Kite (only our second Swallow-tailed Kite on record)! The 13 Mississippi Kites beat our previous season record of 10 in 2018. We did not see a single AMERICAN GOSHAWK (avg = 7) or a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (avg = 1). Our count of 8 GOLDEN EAGLE was notably below average (avg = 21) and similar to last year’s count of 9.
In terms of non-raptors, the season’s Monarch butterfly count of 143 was extremely low compared to our 10-year season average of 1,612. We also counted a total of 86 Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, 82 Double-crested Cormorants, 70 Ring-billed Gull, 4 Tundra Swan, 3 Cliff Swallow, and 8 Common Loon. We had a nice flight of 409 Red-headed Woodpeckers including a new single-day count record of 130 on Sep 20. Other birds observed this season included 28 Common Nighthawk, Bobolink, Horned Lark, Swainson’s Thrush, Olive-sided Flycatcher, American Pipit, Rusty Blackbirds, Eastern Meadowlark, and Purple Finch. Twelve different warbler species were observed (Palm, Cape May, Yellow, Black-throated Green, Black-throated Blue, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, Nashville, Black and White, Kentucky, Magnolia, Yellow-rumped, and Blackpoll). Finally, this year we had horribly high numbers of the invasive Spotted Lanternfly, especially in the later part of September. The lanternflies were so bad on some days that we had to move our counting stations further out from the building, which seemed to attract the insects. We again did not have our annual Open House event this year due to the poor conditions of the Inn, parking lot and access. The future of this site still remains unknown.
I want to give a huge thanks to the following volunteer counters who contributed this season: Brenda Tekin, Rose Thomas, David Hunter, Gabriel Mapel, Nelson Lewis, Diane Lepkowski, William Leigh, Justin Cober-Lake, and Matt Hosmer. Another huge thanks goes to all the Observers who contributed significantly throughout the season including Jennifer Jowdy, Allen Larner, Shannon and Chris Updike, Josh Laubach, Huck Hutchens, Rich Wood, Betty Mooney, Mark Johnson, Mary Smith, and Dave Fischer. Finally, we are so gracious for all the visitors made it up to keep us company and to witness the great fall raptor migration! We sincerely thank all those who helped support our hawk watch this year with your generous donations!
– Vic Laubach, Coordinator
