Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch Talk Topic

Vic Laubach to speak at the fall program of the Rockbridge Bird Club on Tuesday, Sept. 10, in the Piovano Room of the Rockbridge Regional Library His talk will begin at 7 p.m. and will be preceded by a social gathering at 6:30 p.m.

Laubach’s talk is titled “Raptor Migration at Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch,” and he will describe raptors, raptor migration, and how the hawk watch is conducted to help monitor raptor populations. Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch originated in 1976 and is located at the site of the old Holiday Inn. Visitors are welcome and the official hawk counters and observers are educators.

Laubach grew up in central Pennsylvania and discovered birding as a young teen. He received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Penn State University. He did his graduate research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and received a doctorate in genetics from the George Washington University.

In 1996 he came to the University of Virginia where he is now a tenured professor in the Department of Surgery and directs a research laboratory that studies mechanisms of acute lung injury after transplantation.

He and his wife moved to Waynesboro in 2002 where they reside today. He spends as much time as he can out birding locally in the Shenandoah Valley and beyond, and he is currently vice president of the Augusta Bird Club. He is also the coordinator of the Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, which is held each fall from August through November.

A few days after the program, on Saturday, Sept. 14, “Birding at Boxerwood” will resume and continue every second Saturday through spring. Those interested in participating should meet at the kiosk at 8 a.m.