This Was Our Last Scheduled Day

Our last Scheduled definite day to man the watch was today, the last day of September.  We had hoped that the little bit of rain might have caused a last push of Broadies, but they didn't come over our site.

Yesterday, Jimmy eventually went up when the skies cleared and spent about 5 hours there in the afternoon.  His totals were:

6 Broad-Wings
1 Sharp-Shinned
1 Coopers Hawk


Harold Birch went up this morning and this is his report:

"I went up for a while today.  Got there at 10:00.  Fog in valley but blue sky on mountain.  For a while fog reduced and started getting nice clouds.  Around 1200 the fog created a cloud that moved  up and above me.  Covered entire valley but not to the west.  Sometime between 12:30 & 12:45 with foggy clouds overhead, I was looking straight up, resting my head on the chair, hoping to see a hawk fly through my view.  The next thing I knew it was 1:15 and no more foggy clouds.  Had to leave at 2:00.

10:00 64 deg, 96%, calm, 30.00  10% cloud 5K

11:00 70 deg, 81, calm, 29.99, 20%, 8K

12:00 74 deg, 71%, N3, 29.98, 75%, 8K

1:00   79 deg, 60%, N3, 29.96, 25%, 20K

SS at 1123  (south west)
Peregrine 1133, (South)  over head and close enough to see black face markings
BW 1:35 (SW)
BW (4) 1:53  (S)

 Monarchs 10

Cloudless 8

Harold Birch
Soddy Daisy, TN"

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Jimmy then went up from 3- 5:15 pm, and his numbers were:

1 Broad-wing

No other countables.
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Combined totals for today were 6.25 hrs,  6 BWs, 1 SS,  & 1 Peregrine Falcon.


Thank you Harold for covering the early hours!!!

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Our next report will be a YTD.  All other reports for the season will be sporadic as we receive them, or have a chance to go up ourselves.  We express once more our gratefulness for all the extra eyes during the many hours spent there this year.  We feel that the watch was manned for about as many hours as possible for an entire 3 week period.  As many Raptors as could be seen, were gleaned from those days.  It answers for us, how many might be missed by not being on days we expect to not see many. And that answer is: not many.  Single digits for the most part.  Only one day really produced hawks when we didn't expect them.  But several days that we did expect them, left us deflated.  But the hours were covered, and the weather being what it was...hid from us the high flying birds in blue skies or over low clouds.  And as Jimmy says: " We count what we can!"  And that's all we can do.

The blog had 547 page-views this month, with a total of 3,327 views overall.  So excited to be getting the information out for all to see.  The daily records do seem to link us all to what we love. So glad to be sharing with so many great friends!!


Blessings to all.  Be sure to look back a time or two this year, as we expect there to be a few more reports. Before we give a grand Season Total.

We heard good news today from Alix Parks.  The injured Broad-wing is recovering well, and will be releasable  into the migration after all.  Not sure yet if they will carry it to Alabama or release it closer to home.  But we rejoice that it is  doing well. 

Corpus Christi, TX counted over 50,000 Broadies yesterday, but through a dense haze of particles in the sky.  Boy haven't we seen our share of that this year.  Can't imagine having 50,000 blinking hawks. WOW.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=582411212207&set=gm.10152655648180935&type=1

Blessings to all.

The Accipiter, Falcon, and Red-tailed numbers are on the rise at watches North of us.  SOooo, as we always say:

Keep Looking Up!!!!