We are 21 birds away from having recorded 50,000 sightings of Migrating Broad-Wing Hawks from the Soddy Mtn. Lookout, for the fall counts!!!
At the beginning of hawk watch season, fall 2014, we needed 601 Broad-winged Hawks to make the record. Today we saw 436, 37 yesterday and 107 last week, bringing us to a present total of 580 seen this season. Tomorrow morning, we will reach our awesome goal!!
Today's stats: Wednesday, 9/17, 2014
436 Broad-winged Hawks
1 American Kestrel
1 Peregrine Falcon
1 Sharp-Shinned Hawk
2 Coopers Hawks
1 Red-Tailed Hawks
2 Bald Eagles: 1 adult, 1 immature
1 Unidentified Buteo
We had largely high clouds, or clear skies. It got quite hot midday, and it was a bit tough to keep our binocs up from 2 to 4 O'clock, just because of the intensity of seeking hawks we knew should be coming in. Lower numbers in the morning gave way to larger kettles in the afternoon, and the hawks kept flying, both in kettles and in bulleting singles, all the way up to 6:00 PM. We had numerous good looks at Bald Eagles going both North and South, of course, causing us to reduce our morning counts appropriately. Who cares? We just love seeing them no matter which way they fly. LOL
Barring winds that carry the hawks somewhere other than over us...weather and conditions indicate flights should be good throughout the day.
Looking forward to crossing the mark!
Doing our best to meet the test,
Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson
Keep Looking UP!!!
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