8618 TOTAL RAPTORS FOR FALL 2015

Bill says he sent pictures of his first day, and now sending pictures of his last day. And he IS the last day crowd. LOL

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At this point we are calling the season, although a few numbers might trickle in.  In general, some birds are beginning to return from lower climes, and the migrations of many species make for a fun mix of birds of all species both coming and going.  Bald Eagles for instance, may be well underway making nests. Or at the very least, gathering at roosts.  So, it's time to gather the data and double ck it.

I want to note here, that Jimmy does a lot of double checks through-out the season, so there are points in his records where he has made an entry at which point he hangs future data upon, because he has done enough checking to be content with those totals.  We base our final figures off of his returning to those batch figures and checking the grand totals against them.  What happens is  - my side panel totals may be off a little bit.  The reason for this is - I might miss several days updating, or have made minor errors, or just missed posting a day's totals on the blog. I deliberately don't try to make it a perfect record until the very end. We periodically try to update to Jimmy's batch figures, and I update from there.  In so doing, the running totals are flexible, the finals, as of Jan. 1, become final.

 I always try to make it clear that this is a BLOG, the intention of which is to reach out to readers and give them a sense of what hawk-watching is about, and to have a place to display some records, so that there is an open accounting of Birding the Watch.  We want this to be readily available in something nearer to real time, more than past opportunities afforded.  In other words, to make it a little more public and a little more frequent.  It was never intended to be constantly perfect. Although, Jimmy would prefer the latter.  And I keep saying:" IT'S A BLOG!"

Yet at some point, when the records are final, I try to update it across the board to a point of accuracy with which we all can be content to hang our hat.  So today, as I added the last of the report data, I found there was an error on the RT hawks listed on the sidebar, but that due to recent sightings not updated. Otherwise, our running list was a sound double ck for our data records.  They matched.  And I am glad that the system of cks and double cks is working, adding additional assurance that the records are as good as we can humanly get them.  I was thankful to have not been off, just for the sake of infrequent guests having access to recent totals. Thanks so much to our regular readers for staying up with us.  ( according to blog and Facebook notices, we have a regular readership of about 117 and a maximum reach of about 1000 people depending on the news and numbers during the season.) To follow regular notices see our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Soddy-Mountain-Hawk-Watch

Although, the Season is closed, I hope to occasionally tackle  a new bit of info for future reference, and for those learning the craft of Hawk-watching. Otherwise, the posts will be less frequent until Spring and Fall counts.  Maybe, I will get out and capture a few pics, and post them just to keep the wall fresh.  But for now: the Fall Season is closed.  If a few numbers trickle in, we will add them, so the official total will not become official until Jan. 1, 2016. 

Here are the total stats:

TOTALS AS OF COUNT ON 12/3/2015
    4    Black Vultures
162    Turkey Vultures
  16    Osprey
  27    Bald Eagle Adults
    9    Bald Eagle Immatures    Total Eagles  36
    1    Golden Eagle Adult
  16    Northern Harriers
130    Sharp-shinned
  36    Coopers Hawks
  12    Red-shouldered
  38    Red-tailed
8135  Broad-winged Hawks
  10    American Kestrel
    3    Merlin
  16    Peregrine Falcons
    1    Unidentified Buteo (UB)
    2    Unidentified Raptors (UR)
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8618   TOTAL RAPTORS


38 days
177.00 Hours  (131.75 J&C et. al) (45.25 Bill)

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Notable birds:
   4      Double Crested Cormorants
   1      Common Raven
  91     Sandhill Cranes
155     Snow Geese
229     Blue Jays  (All that were counted... definitely more)

Mr. Cooper



Last Red-tail

Adult Bald's

Pictures are all Bill's today.

           
Through-out the season, we keep a running bird list as well.  So I will try to get it up this week, if Jimmy feels like making a tally.  And in upcoming weeks I like to make a few comparisons to past years, and begin updating the records pages.  They need to be finalized. 

It's been a great year!   We are hoping your families have wonderful Holiday experiences and can get together. May you all find the love and joy that was intended for renewal this time of year.  Blessings to all, especially all those volunteers who stood along side us this year.  You are amazing friends and we love you. May your birding be a continued joy.  Looking forward to seeing some at the upcoming bird-counts.

Whereas most people say to "stop and smell the roses" - I always hope you will take just a few minutes each day to:

KEEP LOOKING UP!!!!!!

Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson


 
  

Golden Eagle and Last Count Day

Bill Haley who was called in for Jury Duty, reports his last 3 days, with an overlap from his last post as well.  The high-light is-  remember  the Golden Eagle we saw earlier in the season, going North?....Well, It came south. LOL We think it might be the same.  But so glad he saw one, same or not!!! We would have been disappointed for sure to not have counted it, uh, one. Just having a bit of fun pretending it's the same.

As Bill says, we may have closed out the season with this report. But if there are a few pretty days, we will be happy to do and addendum.  I will post the updated final report tomorrow. Here's Bill's report:

"Here are the totals from my last three days on the lookout. I’m pretty sure I sent you the Nov. 20 totals, but let me know if you didn’t get them. That was a pretty good day! Nov. 27 is probably the end of the season. However, if I can get away on a nice day with good flight conditions, there might be more to come. 

 11/22/15: Arrive 1:15, left 2:45. Total = 1.5 hr. 

1:15: wind N 10-15MPH, clouds 5%, visib. 85K, temp. 43F, hum. 33%, baro. 30.15

2:00: temp. 46F, hum. 38%, baro. 30.14 

Red-tail – 1

 

Sandhill cranes – 59

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11/26/15: Arrive 9:45, left 11:15. Arrive 3:00, left 3:45. Total = 2.25 hr. 

9:45: Wind SE 2-5, clouds 60%, visib. 50K, temp. 44F, hum. 79%, baro. 30.64. (Barometric pressure extremely high!)

10:00: temp. 53F, hum. 59%, baro. 30.64

3:00: Wind SE 2-5, temp. 70F, hum. 45%, baro. 30.50 

Sharp-shinned Hawk – 1 

Sandhill cranes – 9

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11/27/15: Arrive 11:15, left 4:15. Total = 5.0 hrs. 

11:15: Wind ESE 2-5, clouds 60%, visib. 50K (very hazy), temp. 63F, hum. 65%, baro. 30.48

12:00: Clouds 75%, temp. 67F, hum. 57%, baro. 30.46

1:00: Wind E 2-5, Clouds 90%, temp. 69F, hum. 52%, baro. 30.42

2:00: Clouds 65%, temp. 70F, hum. 49%, baro. 30.39

3:00: Clouds 75%, temp. 70F, hum. 49%, baro. 30.35

No 4:00 weather recorded 

Turkey Vulture – 38

Bald Eagle – 5 (4 ad., 1 imm.)

Golden Eagle – 1 (ad.)*

Cooper’s Hawk – 1

Red-tailed Hawk – 3 

* An adult Golden Eagle was seen on the lookout in mid-September, but it was heading north, so could not be counted. The one I saw today is the only countable GE of the 2015 fall season.

The adult Golden Eagle was first seen about 12:05 high over the north ridge. It was being harassed by a local adult Red-tail, which circled very close to the eagle and dove on it at least 4 times. This gave a good size comparison and it was quite easy to see how much larger the eagle was. I noted that it had no white on the underside, not even in the middle of the wings, as immature GE’s do. The complete lack of any white underneath ruled out immature BE. It was completely dark underneath. Occasionally as it circled I could catch a glimpse of some white at the base of the tail with a wide dark band at the tip of the tail. Finally the eagle tired of the Red-tail’s maneuvers and set its wings to glide south, passing directly overhead, but pretty high up. Compared to the head and beak of a BE, which appear quite large on a gliding bird, the head appeared noticeably smaller on this bird, which helped confirm my identification. 

Bill Haley"

 

I for one, am so glad Bill was on the Flat Top and able to - 

 

KEEP LOOKING UP!!!!!

 

Cynthia and Jimmy Wilkerson