It Pays to Watch the Weather Channel!

Today was another banner Hawk-day, even though the fog and clouds were almost noon lifting higher than the ridge and burning off in the valley.  We arrived early, while it was still socked in, because we hoped to spend some time focusing on the accipiters, and falcons that we knew would not mind flying  early, or low across the tree tops.  That's exactly what happened. The first raptors of the morning were accipiters which accompanined a lone BW, and danced along the tree tops on the ridge, and disappeared on the other side, so we couldn't see them migrate through. Not countable, but just what we expected to see. 

We spend a lot of time giving great conditions for the large movements of Broad-winged Hawks and sometimes neglect to tell you, that accipiters, falcons, harriers, osprey and eagles, don't rely solely on those conditions to fly through on migration.  They also may avoid the kettles and thermals all together, never relying strictly on lift and rising wind currents.  Many zip through on the high winds, and some just wing their way past.  The Bald Eagles seem to defy gravity, seldom needing to flap. But if they need to, they will.  So don't be confused by the information we give that applies most ususally to BW's, and think you can't see other hawks on less than great conditions.  Rainy days are just miserable to everyone, hawks included.  But low clouds, and drizzle don't always prevent us from having a great accipiter/falcon day.

Loved having visitors today, and Jimmy said to tell Carolyn that she was there during the time we saw 454 Broad-wings. Just an FYI.  Welcome to you and Phil (the Snows, from Loudon Co. TN), and their guests Iva Kate and Tony Hopper, from Alabama. We were thrilled that Charles Murray, who comes faithfully every chance he gets, was finally able to see a nice size kettle and quite a few streaming through.  It was a joy to see his persistance pay off.  Late in the day, Lora McBride was able to drop in from work.  She came on a day when picking specs streaming through got her hooked, and she got us on another Peregrine Falcon, her first on the hill, and possibly a life bird.

Our counts just couldn't get accurately done without more eyes than just mine and Jimmy's, and we owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the fact that Harold Birch was really in hawk watch mode today.  We are all tired, but he was getting on the incoming steams of BW's one after another.  THANK YOU, SO MUCH, for being by our side. He continued to hold up his binocs even after his neck was hurting, when I just couldn't.  We owe a lot of today's count to him.

So here are the numbers, and I thought that it would be interesting to you, who are not able to be there, to see how the hours went.  I'll just break down the Broadies.  Jimmy puts the numbers from each viewing into parentheses, with the time beside it.  I will not do the minute by minute... but will give you a glimpse into the hour by hour:

• 12:00 hr. ____ 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 38, 105, 23, 3, 8, 2________Total:185
• 1:00   hr. ____ 1, 116, 23, 30, 90, 73, 71, 18, 3, 29_____ Total:454
• 2:00   hr. ____ 2, 2, 25, 16, 17_____________________ Total: 62
• 3:00   hr  ____ 1, 22, 15, 1, 4, 3,22,2,25,4____________Total: 100
• at 3:38 the BW's ceased to fly through at heights we could see them.  Or they were flying further west of us...if there were any.

Total Broad-winged Hawks for the day was 801.

Now if you add my above listed numbers and don't get Jimmy's totals, just know I missed something, but you get the general picture.  Today was a "general rule" breaker.  Our largest number of hawks came through during what we often call "the lull." The usual middle of the day, when Bw's are too high or in the blue to see them.  We sometimes take that time to eat, rather than strain for the birds sometimes too difficult to ID. Also, the sun is right there!  Not good to land binoculars into that very often. That is not to say we don't try to keep an eye to the sky.  Many a tuna sandwich has lured in a couple hundred hawks that can't be missed! LOL And today was one of those days.  Mainly, because the weather broke late, the hawks hadn't gotten to extreme heights.

We began to count Red-Shouldereds and one Red-tailed Hawk today, as well.  There have been an abundance of them hanging around like locals lately.  But the ones we counted were very high, and went from sky to sky sailing like they were late to the party.  They were meaning business.  It was obvious they were on migration.

These are the totals for the day;
BW's                  801
RS                          2
RT                          1
S/S                          3
CH                          2
PG                          2
Un ID'd Raptor       1
B/E                          5
N/H                         1
__________________
Total countable    818

Highlight for me today, were the two Peregrine Falcon's, and the late in the day Northern Harrier.

For info on the abbreviations used above, see the Raptor Species link on the right side of the page.

We are a lot off our big numbers from last year, in spite of a lot of coverage.  But after checking previous years, some of our best days were September 27- 29th.  So we aren't counting this year out just yet.

The next two day may bring many more hawks coursing over us.  Just hope we have enough clouds to see them.  Happy Hawking!

THINGS KEEP LOOKING UP!