NOT A CLOUD IN THE SKY

We were greeted immediately, this morning, by Jim Rowell, already on the watch since 8am, I believe it was.  He always likes to be there early. Jim, until recently has been manning a watch he located in Polk Co. TN.  A bald where he found enough open sky to watch, yet he too had less than desirable results on the this summer's hot, dry days. 

But Jim was not the only one greeting us; a lovely very low Broad-wing flew over the parking area, and winged lazily below the treetops, before circling a bit and disappearing into the southern sky, very low...much lower than any other BW we had seen this year.  We hurried to get situated under the canopy, just in time to see more morning hawks fighting to get themselves aloft.  One after another, for about an hour, they came through closely. Early in the day, we had a variety of sightings.  It went something like this:
10:01 BW, 10:27 AK, 10:35 2BW, 10:38 SS, 10:40 BW, 10:46 BW and then the pause until about 11:30.

In spurts through out the day, in total blue skies, we occasionally got on something, mostly blinking in and out of haze, and struggled, with most, to ID.  We had guests today, David Stone and neighbors Danny and Susan Dodd from on the mountain.  David had wanted to come up for some time, and was excited to see how the watch worked.  He was able to get on the hawks, and ID most.  He was already prepared to rule out Vultures, and eager to learn about identifying distant birds. We had great conversation today, and were able to spend some time sharing a little about exactly what we expect to see during migrations counts.  With blue skies, we at least had some time to be a little more instructive than on some days.

We stayed til 6pm.  Our last spurt of hawks came all at once.  I literally was looking at 3 BWs, a Kestrel, a Peregrine,  and Black and Turkey Vultures all at once followed by 2 more BWs. And all of these were after 5 o'clock.

A daily total, today, of only 31 Raptors:
Wednesday, 9-28, 2016

20 Broad-wings
1 Osprey
3 Am Kestrels
3 Peregrine Falcons
3 Sharp-shins
1 Cooper's Hawks
_________________

Grand Total Raptors 1299

Only a few more days that we will be on the watch on a regular basis.  We expect to stay through Sunday, Oct 2.  After that, sporadically as Bill has time, or Jimmy makes appointments.  Only a few more days.  For searching the skies for Broad-wings.

As always, we admonish that you
Keep Looking UP!!!!!