October 13, 2016

Wildflowers on the bank at the watch, are about faded out now, but have been beautiful every year.

Warmer than usual weather makes being on the watch a pleasant place, I'll bet. But you would have to ask Mr. Haley.  For he, Jim Rowell, and George Parsley spent the day up there,  as scheduled, and here is their report:

Thursday, Oct. 13, 2016:

 

I arrived at the lookout at 8:00 this morning; wind SW 1-2, clouds 10%, visibility was 35K. There was a lot of haze and a visible layer of smoke at the horizon from the forest fire a few miles south. Temperature was 49 and the pressure was 30.21 and rising. Nice morning!

I had to wait an hour for my first hawk, a fairly close-in female Northern Harrier. She was flapping a lot, which meant there wasn't much lift yet.

Clouds ranged between 20% and 75% throughout the day and the light wind changed to NE 2-8 MPH after 2 pm. Temperature reached 85F, and the barometer eventually went down to 30.15. In other words, it seemed to be an all right flight day. The hawks thought otherwise.

Jim Rowell joined me at 9:30. I had to leave at 10:30 and drive back down to the Aquarium to get a shot (flu shot). We hadn't seen any countable hawks when I left, but I told Jim I hoped he'd have a boatload of hawks when I returned. Got back at 12:00. Still nothing but local Red-tails and Sharpies...Jim was batting 000 so far. He finally spotted a high-flying Cooper's at 1:27 - a long wait since my 9 am bird. 

 

Three minutes later George Parsley came up the bank, ready to see some hawks. Turned out he'd have a long wait in store too. 

 

Jim called it a day at 4:00, having counted one hawk. Hawk watching is somewhat like fishing. Some days they just aren't biting! I joked with Jim that when he left we'd see a hawk.

And we did. I spotted one sharpie at 4:20 and a closer one that gave George and me good looks at 4:40. We left at 5:00.

Final hawk total:

N. Harrier - 1, Sharp - shined Hawk - 2, Cooper's Hawk - 1.

Other things of interest: When I arrived, I flushed 2 deer that ran into the woods and snorted at me several times. There were 5 or 6 Ruby crowned Kinglet's - my first of the fall, and as many Tennessee Warblers in the trees behind me. I also heard a Red-breasted Nuthatch again. 

 

Counted 27 migrant Blue Jays, 5 Monarchs and 34 Cloudless Sulphur.

I'll try again tomorrow, on Saturday and again Sunday after church. 

Reporting, Bill Haley

 

______________________

 

If you have an hour or two, you may join him.  He would love to have you!

 

It's a great opportunity to help in the October drive to

 

KEEP LOOKING UP!!!