Rockfish Gap Hawk Watchers

Raptorthon Date: May 1, 2023

On May 1, the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watchers team will conduct our 11th annual Raptorthon! Our team of 4 this year (Vic Laubach, Lynne Parks, Rich Wood, Robyn Puffenbarger) will cover Highland County, Virginia. We’re aiming to beat our 2021 Raptorthon record of 111 species including 8 raptor species! We plan start before sunrise looking for Whip-poor-wills and owls prior to arriving at Paddy Knob (4,478 elevation on the border with West Virginia) just after sunrise. We’ll then spend the rest of the day birding in Highland County and the Bluegrass area hoping for plenty of raptors and other bird action! Wish us luck!

We hope you’ll sponsor our team with a donation of any size! Half of the funds we raise will support HMANA programs such as Hawk Watch Fund grants and half will return to support our local Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch in Waynesboro, VA. We are an all-volunteer hawk watch that has been counting migrating fall raptors since 1976! We depend on donations like yours to help keep our hawk watch up-and-running year-after-year.

Thanks for your support!

The Rockfish Gap Hawk Watchers

Team Leader: Vic Laubach