Sharp-shins Take the Prize

One new species was added to the list today in Bill's count. FOS migrants for the count, because they displayed strong migration behavior.  The answer to how do we know they are migrants?  Because they go from one end of the valley to out of sight the other end, with a migrating attitude.  Getting out of here N to S, no questions asked.  It's hard not to count Raptors whose behavior demonstrates they are not likely locals.  Many locals will go a long part of the distance, but will turn and return, or drop from the sky and show feeding behavior.  Those don't get counted, because we cannot know they are genuinely flying the distance.  But if they come from far enough away you can scarcely see them, or from high enough you just barely get on them, and they continue a southerly path until you cannot see them.  They're countable!

Remember that Bill is on the watch this week.  Join him if you can.

Bill's Friday report:

"Soddy Mountain hawk totals
Fri., Oct. 12, 2018

Coverage: 0830-1430 = 6.0 hrs.

Counter: Bill Haley

      You can't always go by first impressions. I arrived at 0830 EST, and in the first 15 minutes I counted 3 Sharp-shins. It looked like it was going to be a very good flight day! Turns out they must have been stragglers that didn't make it through yesterday. Things slowed down after that. 

     A word of explanation for the four Turkey Vultures I counted, the first of the fall. They're came through as a group, very high up, and streamed down the valley as a group, so I counted as migrants.

     At one point I had four adult Bald Eagles in one binocular view, but didn't count any of them. It seemed they were two pairs of local birds, so not countable. It was quite a sight!

     The Weather Channel said we'd have 5-10 mph north winds, and it did start that way. However most of the day winds were much lighter than predicted, eventually coming from the east and finally the south this afternoon.

Weather: Clouds, mostly thin Cirrus, went from 1% to 50%. Wind started NNE 5-10, switching to E 1-3 @ 1100, ending S 2-5 @ 1400. Temperature 55-66 F. Barometric pressure from 30.02  to 29.97. Visibility was 70K all day.

Hawks by the hour (all times EST):

0800: SS 3

0900: SS 4

1000: SS 1

1100: SS 1, AK 1

1200: TV 4, RT 1

1300: BE 1 ( ad.), SS 1

1400: 0

Hawk totals:

10/12/2018 

Turkey Vultures 4

Bald Eagle 1 ( ad.)

Sharp-shinned 10

Red-tailed 1

American Kestrel 1

__________________

Total raptors: 17

Monarchs 15

Reporting: William G. Haley, Jr."

 

Everyone -

KEEP LOOKING UP!!!