Charles Murray you were a sight for Bill's sore eyes. Thank you for helping out today!
Here's Bill's report:
"Soddy Mountain hawk totals
Sun., Sept. 30, 2018.
Coverage (all times EST): 1230-1600
Counter: Bill Haley
Guest: Charles Murray, 1230-1330
I Wonder How Many?
I've always been a bit envious of hawk lookouts that are manned every day throughout the migration on a consistent basis. That's because we've never had that luxury at Soddy Mountain, and truth be told, we probably don't have a large enough hawk flight to justify such a thing.
I'm there whenever I can be, but there are plenty of days when I play the "I Wonder How Many?" game. Today is one of those. Tammy King, who has been there early the past three Sundays had a conflict today, so no morning coverage. We had Homecoming at church, followed by a fantastic covered dish meal, thus I arrived at the lookout later than normal today.
Charles Murray was getting out of his car as I pulled up, so we both walked up to the lookout at the same time. Five minutes later, even before I had time to start my journal page with weather info, I spotted a kettle of 79 Broad-wings. In the next 19 minutes we saw a small kettle of 9, followed by a very large kettle of 185 and another of 23! To Charles' credit, he got on all these birds. He was tickled, because in prior years he had seen nothing but very distant "speck bird" kettles. These were mostly mid-range birds. Scattered BW's were seen after that, but as often happens, the greatest excitement was packed into a short period.
Now to play the game: I Wonder How Many came through in the 3 hours before I arrived? Could have been one, could have been 1,000. I'll always wonder and never know.
This may be my last time on the lookout for awhile. I start on my 10 days straight stretch at work tomorrow. I'll probably play the game many times during that stretch. I wonder how many Peregrines we'll miss? Today will be the BW total for 2018, the true grand finale I talked about yesterday. They'll be gone when I get up there again.
Weather: Clouds started at 40% and gradually decreased to 15% at days end. Wind was SW 2-10. Temperature increased from 78 F to 84 F. Barometric pressure went down from 30.26 to 30.20. Visibility was good, 50 - 60K. Humidity 65%-56%.
Hawks (by the hour):
1200: OS 1, BW 296
1300: BW 22, PG 1
1400: SS 1, BW 7, AK 2, PG 1
1500: OS 1
Totals:
9/30/18
Osprey 2
Sharp-shin 1
Broad-wing 325
American Kestrel 2
Peregrine 2
_______________
Raptor Total : 332
Migrant butterflies:
Cloudless Sulphur 22, Monarch 6
Reporting : William G. Haley, Jr"
We were a bit busy with cheering our Son through his Ironman Event. He completed his ride and run in the allotted time, and was declared an Ironman at the finish line, but not without consequences. He is paying the Ironman toll tonight. His Dad cheered from home and I from the rollator..LOL but it was worth stretching the expectations of our body's to see him through this. But I most definitely thought of the special day that it was for Soddy Mtn as well.
Ruth Ann Henry, one who thinks of us every year, and usually is able to join for at least one count day, sat down for lunch before feeding her chickens on her little farm today. She said she saw something in the blue sky that caught her attention, but she put up her binoculars, which she always has handy, to check it out. And she said, with total Blue skies fighting her, she managed to count at least 100 before they were no longer countable. She lives in McMinnville, and it made her long to be on our watch. She also said, she wondered if the Soddy watchers would be blessed today as well. She sends a great big hello, and hope for coming at least a few hours, maybe with friends to add to our season.
If there are others, who might put a few hours onto a schedule and say this is a day I can cover for a few hours. Would you please let us know. So we can make a calendar public. We've had a number of people request when they could come and help, if someone was there. I hate to have no dates to give them. But also, it is just plain nice to hear from those of you who have consistently helped us in years gone by. If you sit and hour or two , or more, call or email us with your numbers. And thank you...More than you know friends.
KEEP LOOKING UP!!!
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