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

Saturday, January 12, 2019

2018 is Water Under the Bridge!

I have updated the sidebars and the Stats From the Past page. And have double checked the numbers, backwards and forwards.  I copied the chart from Hawkcount.org to the Stats page, and have made a few changes to highlight the yearly totals.  I also noted that last year was newsworthy due to fires, and this year was newsworthy due to floods.  The total numbers were in the upper best of our 26 years, and put our lifetime counts within one extremely good or two average good years of being 100,000 total raptors .
Jimmy and I continue to have health issues which may take some extra effort to resolve, and I am concerned about our involvement going forward after about that 100,000 count.  So I am delighted to be able to post Bill's efforts to this point, and have continued to make public that record for all to see.
So for now the totals stand, and 2018 is indeed WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE!

Year #26 is DONE!

KEEP LOOKING UP!!!

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2018 Final Count Is Official

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  EVERYONE.

May your upcoming year be everything you hope it will be.  We all got through this rain to celebrate a very nice Christmas, but as Bill suspected, December 2 was his final day on the watch.  And with this weather, it should have been. 

I am only going to post the final numbers with no discussion at this time.  Starting with the chart from the final on Hawkcount.


The final for the season was a very respectable 4524 Raptors for the fall season 2018. 
 
We saw the BW numbers of 3473 at the end of September, rise to 3643 before October was done. Our big miss this year might have been the Golden Eagle. 


At season's end, my notebook is off by 5 birds, which is why the multiple double checks are so helpful.  Because the running total on the blog sidebar, and the cart total for Hawkcount, and Jimmy's totals match, to the bird.  I'll double check the grand totals by going back to the beginning figures and adding in the new totals, before I put up those finals today. We might post one more short blog before closing until next season. I want to see if anything stands out for the year, when I look at the stats page over the past years. And also to check for the highlights to make the final links.

Thank you Bill Haley for hanging in there.  And to those who helped Bill along during the September/October share drives.  You were a blessing to him.

 May your winter birding  be a great joy! Watch for those raptors which will have built nests already, and some which will have young hatchlings immediately.  Because the Eagles should be showing up everywhere.
Because there is always a reason to

KEEP LOOKING UP!!!!!

Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson