A Day Bill and Jim Will Never Forget

Birds the storm held back have finally arrived.   I personally believe there are a lot more that were held back and the storms over MN, Ohio, etc, where they would normally pass, may push some East, before they move south.  They may already be near and north of our ridge.  I expect more great days in the near future.  But we'll see.

Today's count has Bill amazed-

" Soddy Mountain, TN hawk totals

 Fri., Sept.  21, 2018 

Hours of coverage: 0800-1745. = 9.75 hrs. 

Counters: Bill Haley,  Jim Rowell,  Tami King.

Today was a tale of two half days. Clouds were 75-85% to start the morning. From 1100 to 1300 we had 100% cloud cover. Hawk total for the first half was 1 Broad-winged Hawk. The second half of the day was better. Shortly before 1:00 some patches of blue sky started to appear and enlarge. It didn’t take the Broad-wings long to take advantage of the clearing. We saw our first four at 1:07, and sightings were regular as the blue increased. 

The real fireworks came in the middle of the 2:00 hour. Jim spotted a small kettle and we were both looking at it, when I decided to look around in case some others were trying to sneak through. I scanned only a short distance to the right, and was astonished to see a huge armada of hawks coming our way! They were in a very broad front and as far as we scanned back along their path there were many more birds appearing in the distance. Words fail me to properly describe what we witnessed as a seemingly endless stream of Broad-wings came directly over the lookout, and at a nice medium altitude that didn't require binoculars to enjoy. Suffice to say this is the largest single grouping of hawks I've ever witnessed. This one stream of 850 hawks was truly awe inspiring! It certainly made up for all those long hours in the hot sun with few hawks we've endured up to this point. They formed several mega - kettles south of the lookout, reminiscent of images I've seen from Vera Cruz,  Mexico, often referred to as "the river of hawks".

Ten minutes later Jim again said, "I've got five, six, seven birds." I looked above his birds and there was another huge kettle! As they streamed out, I added another 280 to our days total. 

That 20-25 minutes will be long-remembered by Jim and I!

Weather:

0800: Clouds 75%, wind NE 1-2, temp. 70 F, visib. 20K. 

0900: Clouds 85%, wind SE 1-2, temp.  71 F.

1000: Clouds 80%, wind SSE 2-5, temp. 72 F, visib. 25K.

1100: Clouds 100%, wind S 1-3, temp. 75 F, visib.  60K.

1200: Clouds 98%, wind SE 1-3, temp. 77 F.

1300: Clouds 60%, wind SE 2-5, temp. 85 F, (dramatic clearing shortly before 1300).

1400: Clouds 45%, wind SE 2-5, temp. 88 F

1500: Clouds 30%, wind NE 2-8, temp 89 F.

1600: Clouds 55%, wind ESE 2-8, temp. 90 F.

1700: Clouds 70%, wind SE 1-5, temp. 89 F.

Hawks:

Osprey (1) 4:23

Bald Eagle (1) 2:12 (ad.), (1) 4:00 (imm.)

Broad-wing  (by the hour)

0800: 0

0900: 0

1000: 1

1100: 0

1200: 0

1300: 16

1400: 1169

1500: 1

1600: 59

1700: 14

Total: 1260

Peregrine Falcon: (1) 1:40

9/21/18

OS 1

BE 2

BW 1260

PG 1

_________

[Total  Raptors - 1264]

Reporting: William G. Haley, Jr."

 

Hope some people can get out there to help them

Keep Looking UP!!!

For the sake of the blog record, ongoing:
1. we are only 1475 birds from crossing a 90000 raptor mile marker Grand Total.
2. We are only 19 BW's from having a Grand Total of 66,000.
3. We are less than 100 birds from having 2000 for the season. 
4. We are right inline with the numbers being seen East of us in NC.
5. Several mile marker records could be surpassed tomorrow!!!