Updating Hawk Watch counts for September

Bald Eagle from 9 21 12

Year To Date Total for 2012 Fall Season:

• 1573 Broad - Winged Hawks
•       8 Sharp - Shinned Hawks
•       3 Coopers Hawks
•       8 Bald Eagles (Adults) counted on migration
• plus 4 more flying in wrong direction
•       1 Osprey
•       5 Peregrin Falcons
•       1 Amercan Kestral
•       3 Northern Harriers

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1602 Total to date Raptors - all species

Birds of Note:  1 Cormorant  (flying North)
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Last year for comparison: was the worst count season we remember in forever
 - 1881 Raptors, all species.

For whole season we had 1823 total Broad Wings, 18 CH, 16 SS, 6 Osp, 3 NH, 6 BE, 2 PF, 2 AK, 1 RS, 1 RT, and 3 Un ID.

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3 or 4th yr adult Bald Eagle
see the white in the wings and incomple change of head color, not entirely white.

Sunday   9/09/12

• 4 Broad - Winged Hawks
• 1 Coopers Hawk
• 1 Sharp - Shinned Hawk
• 2 Bald Eagles flying north/.

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6 Total Raptors - countable species

Much thanks goes to Phil and Carolyn Snow, of Loudon, TN who were already hawking when we arrived.  Great eyes and great company!  Carolyn tends to get us on the Hawks:) 
w. Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson
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Monday   9/10/12  
Not a single  countable hawk all afternoon, 1-4:00 p.m.

A few other birds we saw were: Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, Mourning Dove, Eastern Bluebird, Blue Jay, and American Crow.

w. Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson
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Tuesday - no watchers
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Wednesday    9/12/12

• 13 Broad - Winged Hawks
•   1 Osprey

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14 Total Raptors - countable species

w. Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson

Other birds: Chimney Swift, Mourning Dove, Blue Jay, Turkey Vulture, Pileated Wood Pecker, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Black Vulture, and American Crow.

Note: Hawks not counted would be what we call "Local" birds, those who make frequent appearances daily, fly north, or are known to not be in full migration mode until later in the season.  Any of these birds whose species might be considered near their migrating dates drawn from previous year's records, would need to come from a place far out north of us and fly to a place far south of us.  Often they are high in the sky and also moving rather quickly through our space.  Once or twice we have seen a Red-tailed Hawk meet the required flight perameters, only to see it come flying back up the valley a minute or two later...In which case we remove them from the count. 
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Thursday   9/13/12

• 32 Broad - Winged Hawks
•   1 Sharp - Shinned Hawks

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33 Total Raptors - countable species

w. Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson

Other birds: Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, Chimney Swift, American Crow, Eastern Towhee, Black Vulture, Gold Finch, Blue Jay, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.
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Friday   9/14/12

• 58 Broad - Winged Hawks
•   1 Coopers Hawk
•   1 Sharp - Shinned Hawk
•   3 Bald Eagles

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63 Total Raptors - countable species

Bill Holt  was our qualified eagle-eye counter on this day.  Thanks so much for the time spent up there alone, for it's tough to do sometimes; but also for the report.   Appreciate the help!! The 100% cloud cover didn't deter him from planning to be there as soon as it broke.  It paid off Bill, with our largest count of BWs til this date. And we would not have wanted to miss the Eagles.

Bill can be counted among our "club" regulars and he and his wife are wonderful friends as well. 
Thanks again!
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Saturday   9/15/12

• 33 Broad - Winged Hawks
•   1 Coopers Hawk

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34 Total Raptors - countable species

Jimmy only on this day.  I was sick.  Thanks to Jimmy for toughing it alone. This was the first day with the longest hours - a full 7 hours of scanning the skies alone!

Other birds: Blue Jay, Turkey Vulture, Pileated Woodpecker, Eastern Bluebird, Gold Finch, American Crow, Eastern Towhee, Mourning Dove, Red-tailed Hawk, Eastern Phoebe, Black Vulture, White-Breasted Nuthatch, and Chimney Swift. 
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Sunday   9/16/12

• 8 Broad - Winged Hawks

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8 Total Raptors - countable species

w. Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson

Other birds: American Crow, Eastern Phoebe, Turkey Vulture, Blue Jay, Ruby - Throated Hummingbird, Northern Mockingbird, Red-shouldered Hawk, Mourning Dove, Black Dove, Black Vulture, Pileated Woodpecker, Chimney Swift, Gold Fiinch, & Sharp-shinned that flew east.

NOTE: on this day, cloud closed in and rain started pouring and edging us off the watch.  Not seeing much anyway.
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Monday,, 17th and Tuesday, 18th, it rained most of all the day for these two days. Heavy rains stacked up hawks north of us, and raised our expectations for good days to follow>>>>>>
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Wednesday   9/19/12

• 264 Broad - Winged Hawks
•     1 Peregrine Falcon
•     1 Sharp - Shinned Hawk
•     1 Northern Harrier

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267 Total Raptors - countable species

w. Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson, almost 7 hours of counting.


Other Birds: Black Vulture, Mourning Dove, Pileated Woodpecker, Gold Finch, Turkey Vulture, Blue Jay, Eastern Bluebird, Red-shouldered Hawk, Eastern Phoebe, RT Hawk, Blackbirds looked like Red-winged, American Crow, Northern Flicker, Carolina Chickadee, Coppers Hawk Local, & Sharp-shinned Hawk local.
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Thursday   9/20/12

• 377 Broad - Winged Hawks
•     2 Sharp - Shinned Hawks
•     3 Bald Eagles (adults)
•     1 Peregrine Falcon

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383 Total Raptors - countable species

Bill and Nan Holt joined us on the watch as soon as  they were free, once we called them with our early good numbers.  Once again, we were bless to have Bills eyes to ease our pain.  Thanks so much, enjoyed visiting with you Nan.  You are so sweet!

w. Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson

NOTE:  There was 100% cloud cover for most of the morning.  We started up once, and upon reaching a point where we could see the ridge was still covered in clouds and the valley was hazed in, we turned around to come back as the clouds were breaking, about noon. Almost immediately upon getting situated, we began to see hawks rising from the other side of the ridge north of us. They were kettling by in large numbers into the haze.  Not so far out, but with good winds and great lift the huge kettle rotated into the cloud above it before we could get 1/3 of it counted.  We actually saw the entire kettle just wind its way into the cloud.  At what point the birds reached "the top" of the kettle where they would "peel off" into their general migratory direction we could not know. But waiting for any opportunity to see some of the birds passing between clouds or higher up in the tiny bits of blue sky, we deem that the first 60 birds counted had more than enough time ot have passed us.  But just about time we had decided that we would not see these birds again and we would have to guess at how many more birds were there, the clouds broke and hawks were busy passing from one cloud into another, in more than one stream.  The grand total of the hawks we were actually able to count was 167, but there were possibly many more. My initial estimate had been 200+ BWs.  A later count of 199 hawks back to back moving in a SW direction helped to bring our totals to a whopping 366 seen in just 40 minutes.  Many of the birds of the second round of counting also appeared to be lifting from the trees all around us, and many from trees in the misty hazes of the valley, where they made their way to the updrafts of the ridge and then entered the kettles rising from the ridge hugging the road (111) below us.  We scarcely knew whether to look ahead of us or behind us and feel we missed numbers of birds that could not be counted without more eyes.  But what was wonderful about this day, was our ability to predict a "best time" scenario, held true.  Over time, it has become obvious, that a cold front which passes through, accompanying heavy rains, which breaks with favorable winds, will provide our watch with good counts because the hawks are backed up, and waiting for a chance to fly!  In this case, we were there to see what appeared to be "lift offs" and/or hawks making their way into our space at low altitudes due to the lack of lift until the clouds cleared enough for the sun to produce thermals into which the birds flying through haze could get height.  They headed for the areas where they saw other birds forming into the classic kettles in great numbers.  A real blessing to see.  We also found that the birds who are wantding to make time, definitely fly into and through clouds, if not above them. What's more, the wind were often out of the SW and 10 to 25 MPH and the birds were sometimes fighting for their lift.  We saw one BW rise in a thermal with a vulture, and when he flew off hoping to head West, had a great deal of trouble due to winds in his face.  He then returned to the thermal where the Turkey Vulture was still finding lift and stayed there until at least twice as much higher. We also saw one bird flying along in a Southerly straight line, which was gaining lift, like an airplane with its wing flaps adjusted to gain altitude.  By just pulling in his wings, he just kept rising higher.  Some days it seems such weather hold the birds off from flying, but lately, they are in Go mode!

Other birds: Blue Jay, Turkey Vulture, Blk Vulture, Chimney Swift, American Crow, and Double Crested Cormorant.
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Friday   9/21/12

• 784 Broad - Winged Hawks
•     3 Peregrine Falcons
•     2 Northern Harriers
•     2 Sharp - Shinned Hawks
•     1 American Kestral

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792 Total Raptors - countable species

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!! Harold Birch for coming early and mowing the hawk watch seating area.  And God bless you Jimmy for trimming the tops from the little trees that were blocking the view.  Also they prepared the area that will be for watchers to climb the bank to make it safer, especially to carry arm loads of equipment up on.  Harold stayed the whole day to help us count.  And good thing, because the hawks were everywhere in the sky today.  Beginning with blue skies mostly, made the day have a slow start, but the afternoon hours proved to be challenging to determine who was counting what?  Some were very close and some very far away, and some were flying between the extremes, all at the same time!  Several medium large kettles, and we had to wait a time or two for them to come out of the haze and be closer to feel out counts were accurate.  Many of them got counted two or more times to see if we could improve the count at closer range.  Not a lot of turning to look behind us, because we couldn't have been sure if the birds had regrouped into new kettles, thereby being counted twice if we paid attention to what was behind us.  So we maybe missed a few flying from below as they have recently.  Chose not to inflate the numbers and take the loss. 
Note the 3 Peregrin Falcons! WOW.

A big shout out must go to Lenny and Lee Anne Kafka who joined us midday and stayed for the duration.  Always lively talk, but great spotters as well.  Lenny really helped us cover more sky area, and pick up stragglers, and open up the mutliplicity of the kettles.  Adds hawks to the totals every time, which we otherwise would have missed.  Lee Anne never fails to get us on Bald Eagles before she leaves.  Today they were close close , close!  Hurray for devoted help!

Harold and the Kafkas also are regular hawk watchers, who have been with us through the years, and may be counted among those backbone members of the counting team.  Appreciate you soooo much, fellow watchers. Thanks and God bless.

w. Cynthia  and Jimmy Wilkerson.

Other Birds: E. Phoebe, E. Kingbird, Turkey Vulture, Blk Vulture, N. Flicker, Blue Jay, Am. Crow, Red-shouldered Hawk, Mourning Dove, Red-tailed Hawk, Chimney Swift, E. Bluebird, Gold Finch, Ruby Throated Hummingbird.

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TOMORROW:  THE TOS FIELD TRIP to the Hawk Watch. Looking forward to seeing all our friends. Hope they are blessed with a great Hawk Watching Day!  Gotta Get Ready and get some sleep.