SITE DESCRIPTION

SITE DESCRIPTION:
"The Soddy Mountain hawk lookout is located in southeast Tennessee on the eastern face of Walden's Ridge (the Cumberland Escarpment) in Hamilton County, a short distance north of the town of Soddy-Daisy, TN. It lies at the eastern terminus of Jones Gap Road atop a bluff overloooking Hwy. 111 and the beautiful Tennessee River Valley to the east. The hawk lookout location is state-owned land, and there are currently no restroom or eating facilities nearby. Hawk watchers are advised to bring their own folding lawn chair, sunscreen, a hat, and drinking water, as well as binoculars and a field guide. Caution should be used at all times, especially if children are present, as there is no fence to prevent a fall off the nearby 75 foot bluff. The hawk lookout proper is level ground." *

No Shelter is available, and parking is on a level below the lookout grounds. The climb to the watch site is up a steep bank about 8' high. Other helpful tools might include an umbrella or spotting scope, although on a good day, you might not find time to use either.*

Courtesy of William G. (Bill) Haley, compiler and author of the brochure, Soddy Mountain Hawk Lookout, produced for TOS.

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk
Falconer Mr. Johnson's Red-tail

Friday, September 14, 2018

A New Tool

Alabama birder, Gregory J. Harbor, sent a message to ALBIRDS, listserve, suggesting that mirgratory paths might be affected by winds, and wanted to use this info to know good days to see warblers in his area.  We could do the same for hawks.  We have always looked at the wind predictions for the day to hope for optimum conditions for seeing kettles of BW's.  But have always wished we could know the conditions north of us a couple of days out, to see where the winds might have pushed hawks heading south.  Knowing the migration route, we find ourselves most concerned with winds that follow a NE to SW path.  Because our hawks are generally following the ridges north of us in that direction.  So I suggest you plan your hawk watching opportunities around checking out this website.  Wind direction and cloud cover have always been high on our priorities for making sure the watch above Soddy Daisy is covered. 

Will be interesting to see if adding the info from this site, will produce good results for guessing migration results. 

Check it out: Windy.com and specifically this page:
 https://www.windy.com/?2018-09-15-15,37.751,-97.822,5

I took a screen shot from the wind projections for midday on Saturday the 15th.  It shows Hurricane Florence and the winds coming strongly from over Virginia.  More northerly winds are directed west of us.  What might we guess? Maybe some migrating sea birds?  Hawks that have been sitting ahead of the hurricane? 

Would be interesting to see.


 
 
ck out the site and look at the hour by hour predictions for upcoming days. 
Then set your sites on the skies, because you won't see it if you don't

KEEP LOOKING UP!!!
Cynthia

 
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