Where on the Ridge?

From numerous places in the valley below, the Soddy Daisy Hawk Watch site can be recognized by the telephone pole on the ridge.

  If the Hwy 111 break in the trees is recognizable, then finding the power pole is often just as easy.  Below is a picture I took from a boat on Soddy Lake, on the East side of the causeway.  See the power pole?

(Click on the picture above to see it enlaged.)

From this vantage, we can see migrating hawks, which are generally easier to see in respectable numbers, in the fall.  Some hawks will do what other species of birds do in the fall, tending to congregate and travel in the company of other hawks, when on southerly migration.  Although, we search for single birds as well, it is a joy to count hundreds at once just for the thrill of it. Broad-winged Hawks congregate and pass through our area in September. They are most easily seen when the "thermal" of air, they are riding upon, causes them to appear to be boiling about in a cauldron, or as if circling on a slow moving invisible tornado.  Well, that is sort of exactly what is happening. Rising air sometimes creates a funnel of circling lift upon which birds ride for as long as possible. Once they reach the top of the rising air (thermal) they begin to fly off into the direction of their migration.  They "set their wings,"  (a phrase which describes the posture of their wings to their body,) which allows them to ride the wind with greatest effectiveness for distance and lift, and to conserve energy.  As they "peel off" from the revolving centrifuge, they do as anything leaving something whirling round would do. They use that energy to propel them, and they use both the added height and energy gained in the climb, to keep them aloft without exerting energy, flapping their wings, for as long as possible.   Sometimes turbulence ahead dissolves or interrupts this forward thrust, or dead air causes them to drop faster than other times, but every ounce of energy saved is of value along the long journey to winter destinations. They simply catch the next available thermal and get lift every chance they get.  Our posts this season will attempt to give an overview of the season, bring you up to date on past counts, put the hawkless days into perspective, and share more about hawks in general. 
Follow us here whether or not you can join us on the hill.  As time progresses, we will add more information for your own hawk watching enrichment. Next post...It's time to cut the grass!  LOL
Stay tuned. Comments are welcome.  For questions please email Jimmy at the email address found in our profile. Welcome aboard whether you are a casual lover of hawks or an avid birder who wants to become more involved with counts.  Or maybe, you just long to see a large number of hawks spiralling upward into their thermal, just once in your life.  We can't promise to deliver, but we can help you make decisions on when and where to look.