Under deep cloud cover until about 4:30 Jimmy, Bill Haley, Harold Birch and I enjoyed the variety of hawks that will pass on days like this. I think of these days as Sharpie Days. Although we only had 5, knowing they would be joined by a variety of other hawks made looking for only one more enticing.
Not sure if we will go at all on Sunday or Monday. The threat of rain, is not the same kind of day as today. Cloud cover and rain, usually set even the Sharpies down.
Today is a long way from our Biggest Day - in 2009 - of nearly 4000 BW's. Because of days of sun, there have been no back ups of hawks not flying North of us. They have streamed through day after day, with little obstruction, sometimes above the low clouds we think. We have been unable to see them due to blue skies or low cloud cover. And though it seems we are explaining it away day after day, the simple truth is that we cannot see them. Hard as we try, no matter how many hours we spend, if they are able to get lift early in the heat of the day and nothing hinders their flight, they will move on and quickly.
Some quibble about whether they actually fly above the clouds, and how high that might be. I have watched hawks in all kinds of skies, for enough years now, to have no doubt. I have seen them flying above the clouds through the breaks in the clouds. I have seen them flying through the clouds from one to another. Flying into the clouds from blue sky, and thermaling through several layers of clouds. I even saw them once, streaming under the curl of the anvil of a thunderstorm, looking like a surfer on an ocean wave as they rode the wind rushing through. One of my favorite memories.
I am going to use the abbreviated terms for listing or counting in this post. To understand some charts on hawks stats, you need to know the abbreviations. Find them on our SPECIES KEY page on the sidebar. Can you spot one special bird on the list?
Stats for today: 9/27/2014
BW 12
SS 5
CH 1
ML 1
RS 1
RT 1
AK 1
OS 1
Also seen, was a small flock of 8 Cormorants moving W to E, toward the river. Bill arrived early to warblers, a Catbird, and a Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
This is the time of year that Broad-wing counts would begin to dwindle, and the numbers of Accipiters should rise. If we were to continue daily trips up, records would demonstrate this. There is also a chart on the Species Key page that shows the general movement times for all Raptors.
One more note -
We have always watched the numbers of dragonflies and butterflies moving through as we watch for hawks. In part because they are so obviously there - or not. Partly, because we know Broadies will snack on dragonflies in flight. (We've seen it numerous times.) Partly, because the most abundant of the butterflies passing by are usually Monarchs. This year we have had concerns. The numbers on both things have been low, until today. A feature on the Weather Channel, showed a mass of Monarchs showing up on Radar, due to the number of them. AT 5,000 FEET out west. So maybe our missing bugs are high, and may have some influence on the hawks flight levels as well. Something to consider, but while we are considering, we count what we can. Today we saw our first dramatic increase in the numbers of Monarchs. We might not notice if BW numbers were high. No time to count Monarchs, but today we had time. Bill tallied as we called out each one we saw. The result was that as the day progressed we saw many more.
Monarch Butterflies 148!
Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson
Keep Looking UP!!!!!!
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