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| Bill says he sent pictures of his first day, and now sending pictures of his last day. And he IS the last day crowd. LOL |
At this point we are calling the season, although a few numbers might trickle in. In general, some birds are beginning to return from lower climes, and the migrations of many species make for a fun mix of birds of all species both coming and going. Bald Eagles for instance, may be well underway making nests. Or at the very least, gathering at roosts. So, it's time to gather the data and double ck it.
I want to note here, that Jimmy does a lot of double checks through-out the season, so there are points in his records where he has made an entry at which point he hangs future data upon, because he has done enough checking to be content with those totals. We base our final figures off of his returning to those batch figures and checking the grand totals against them. What happens is - my side panel totals may be off a little bit. The reason for this is - I might miss several days updating, or have made minor errors, or just missed posting a day's totals on the blog. I deliberately don't try to make it a perfect record until the very end. We periodically try to update to Jimmy's batch figures, and I update from there. In so doing, the running totals are flexible, the finals, as of Jan. 1, become final.
I always try to make it clear that this is a BLOG, the intention of which is to reach out to readers and give them a sense of what hawk-watching is about, and to have a place to display some records, so that there is an open accounting of Birding the Watch. We want this to be readily available in something nearer to real time, more than past opportunities afforded. In other words, to make it a little more public and a little more frequent. It was never intended to be constantly perfect. Although, Jimmy would prefer the latter. And I keep saying:" IT'S A BLOG!"
Yet at some point, when the records are final, I try to update it across the board to a point of accuracy with which we all can be content to hang our hat. So today, as I added the last of the report data, I found there was an error on the RT hawks listed on the sidebar, but that due to recent sightings not updated. Otherwise, our running list was a sound double ck for our data records. They matched. And I am glad that the system of cks and double cks is working, adding additional assurance that the records are as good as we can humanly get them. I was thankful to have not been off, just for the sake of infrequent guests having access to recent totals. Thanks so much to our regular readers for staying up with us. ( according to blog and Facebook notices, we have a regular readership of about 117 and a maximum reach of about 1000 people depending on the news and numbers during the season.) To follow regular notices see our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Soddy-Mountain-Hawk-Watch
Although, the Season is closed, I hope to occasionally tackle a new bit of info for future reference, and for those learning the craft of Hawk-watching. Otherwise, the posts will be less frequent until Spring and Fall counts. Maybe, I will get out and capture a few pics, and post them just to keep the wall fresh. But for now: the Fall Season is closed. If a few numbers trickle in, we will add them, so the official total will not become official until Jan. 1, 2016.
Here are the total stats:
TOTALS AS OF COUNT ON 12/3/2015
4 Black Vultures
162 Turkey Vultures
16 Osprey
27 Bald Eagle Adults
9 Bald Eagle Immatures Total Eagles 36
1 Golden Eagle Adult
16 Northern Harriers
130 Sharp-shinned
36 Coopers Hawks
12 Red-shouldered
38 Red-tailed
8135 Broad-winged Hawks
10 American Kestrel
3 Merlin
16 Peregrine Falcons
1 Unidentified Buteo (UB)
2 Unidentified Raptors (UR)
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8618 TOTAL RAPTORS
38 days
177.00 Hours (131.75 J&C et. al) (45.25 Bill)
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Notable birds:
4 Double Crested Cormorants
1 Common Raven
91 Sandhill Cranes
155 Snow Geese
229 Blue Jays (All that were counted... definitely more)
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| Mr. Cooper |
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| Last Red-tail |
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| Adult Bald's |
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| Pictures are all Bill's today. |
Through-out the season, we keep a running bird list as well. So I will try to get it up this week, if Jimmy feels like making a tally. And in upcoming weeks I like to make a few comparisons to past years, and begin updating the records pages. They need to be finalized.
It's been a great year! We are hoping your families have wonderful Holiday experiences and can get together. May you all find the love and joy that was intended for renewal this time of year. Blessings to all, especially all those volunteers who stood along side us this year. You are amazing friends and we love you. May your birding be a continued joy. Looking forward to seeing some at the upcoming bird-counts.
Whereas most people say to "stop and smell the roses" - I always hope you will take just a few minutes each day to:
KEEP LOOKING UP!!!!!!
Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson
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