2013 Summary

Jimmy posted the following YTD Summary for the year 2013.  The summary constitutes the totals for the time where coverage was as consistant as we could all manage.  There may be a few days during the next two months that someone is able to get up for a few hours of leisurely hawk counting.
Looking back to last year - a few days early in October we had between 100 and 200 BW's for the day, which makes us sad not to be able to be able to be in two places at once this week.  I will post any data on miscellaneous days in the future, but for now this is Jimmy's Year To Date Summary:

Season Summery 2013

We kicked off the watch on Sept. 10 and ended on Oct. 01. We had 18 days
coverage and logged 102.25 hours.

We counted for the season: 8 Osprey; 19 Bald Eagles; 2 Northern Harriers; 32
Sharp-shinned Hawks; 14 Cooper's Hawks; 4 Red-shouldered Hawks; 2656
Broad-winged Hawks; *4 Red-tailed Hawks (as far as I know, the first ever dark
phase Red-tailed Hawk); 3 American Kestrels; no Merlin's; 4 Peregrine Falcons
along with 1 unidentified accipiter and 1 unidentified Raptor.
TOTAL: 2748
Our Broad-winged Hawk average was off by around 2300 birds. Our official big
day total was 801 BW's on Sept. 26th. On Sept. 18th. Cynthia was only able to
count 130 specks in a massive kettle that just never materialized as they flew to the
west before they got close enough for us to count. The estimate would have exceeded 500 birds and most likely over 1,000. Cynthia could see a writhing gray matter that looked like glitter in the distant skies as the hawks kettled which she knew were Broad-winged Hawks but we couldn't in good conscience count them. More than likely this could have been our biggest kettle ever!

Visitors for the season included:
Andrew Theus
Ruth Ann Henry x 3 visits
Charles Murray x 4
Pete & Marg Krampee x 2
Lenny Kafka
Charlie & Suan Corn
Lora McBride x 3...a quick study and eager new counter!
Bob Saunders
Kathy Andregg from Georgia
Carla Quinn with parents Martha & Ben Hall
Phil & Carolyn Snow...Carolyn always comes on our biggest day!
Tony & Iva Kate Hopper from Alabama
Jeffrey Schaarschmidt x 2... maybe he will become a regular!
David & Jackie Boykin from Georgia
Jennifer Taylor from the TN Aquarium
Mark McShane x 2 brought Pat Markey both from Georgia
and Phil & Jody from Georgia

May I give special thanks to all the regular counters who make
Soddy Mtn. Hawk Watch what it is...
Harold Birch
Bill Holt
Cynthia Wilkerson and myself

Jimmy Wilkerson
Hixson, Hamilton Co., Tn
___________________________________________________________

We feel like the big push this year was earlier this year than last, due to 3 reports of large numbers passing between the 18th and 22nd of Sept, near to, or north of, our site.  One of those being the enourmous group we saw and were not able to count just to the west of us.

We had wondered if warmer weather might mean Broad-wings would pass later this year, but indications from our site and others, reveals an earlier push instead.  Our stats must remain true to what we are actually able to see, (or at least make a reasonable estimate of what we can see, if we are unable to count them singly.)  The blog will continue to report sightings where ever our hawk watching friends see them, but the summary numbers will remain faithful to the watch area only. C

KEEP LOOKING UP!