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| Merlin pic from All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology as found in Chrome Images. The dark falcon... |
After wrestling lately with my old computer softwares, I did an upgrade to Google Chrome. It somehow locked my Control Key for quite a while, and after some tears, I was about to give up.No files would open, I couldn't put up a new page in my Gimp, I couldn't open our facebook, and everything I tried, nothing happened. I could not figure out what to do, but it seemed I could copy paste. I thought, I will copy/paste what I can, so I opened my Word file, the only one that even tried to open. A box came up which said that I was holding down my control key. A number of years ago, when upgrading, I had run into that before, so I knew something had it locked. It wasn't just stuck, so I thought, "How did I download a virus upgrading from Chrome?", and I was discouraged to say the least. But after hitting the Control Key a number of times, it released. Very slowly, a few things at a time came back to usefulness. Eventually, I could open files, including pictures which didn't respond before. And then Norton popped up several files which had been loaded to my computer, telling me it was safe, and it was over.
Someone who knows more about computers might understand what happened, but it seems to me, that it just needed to stop operations to do the upgrade. Anyway, I discovered that as I feared one of my Blogs would not work anymore, it has been cached as far as Chrome is concerned. For now, it still operates through Internet Explore, but all the others, including our Blog, worked just fine as soon as I figured out how and where to put in usernames and passwords, and get them all open. I do not know if I can write to them, however, because they are under my name and a separate Email, so for now, I will not log in and out. But will just post here. Too much work - these computer changes sometimes. But it's done.
I let Saturday's report stay up a while today, and am posting for Sunday. Good numbers for the time spent..
Maybe no more delays because of computers...
"Soddy Mountain, TN hawk report for
Sun , Oct. 13, 2019
Time on lookout: 1330-1645 = 3.25 hr.
Counter: Bill Haley 1330-1645
Visitor: Tim Baldwin 1430-1645
Weather: 1300 Clouds 35%, wind ESE 2-8, visib. 65K, temp. 75F. 1400 Wind S 2-5, temp. 75F. 1500: Clouds 70%, wind S 2-5, temp. 78F. 1600: Clouds 90%, wind S 5-8, temp 79F.
Raptors by hour:
1330-1400: 0
1400-1500: SS 4
1500-1600: NH 1, SS 4, CH 1, ML 2
1600-1645: SS 1, CH 1
Total raptors:
NH 1
SS 9
CH 2
ML 2
______________
Total Raptors: 14
I was joined by Tim Baldwin, an enthusiastic new watcher who first visited the lookout last week. His wife Barb was in Kansas City visiting their 1 year old grandson, so he decided to get some more hawkwatching experience. It proved to be an exciting day, with a nice mixture of species. This fall has been tough, as I've had a lot of visitors, but not a lot of hawks to show them. Thankfully today was different and Tim saw everything that flew by.
Sharpies began moving through as blue skies grew cloudy. We discussed some clues to differentiate Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks from Pete Dunne's book, Hawks in Flight. About that time a Cooper's came through overhead and it was easy to note the head which sticks out farther than it's smaller cousin's does, straight leading edge of the wings and the fact it didn't flap as much, or as often, as a sharpie.
As it grew increasingly cloudy, I commented that I often expect Northern Harriers in similar darkened conditions. He had often seen them coursing low over marshes, but never in a situation like this. In migration they can fool you into thinking they are a Turkey Vulture coming head-on, but they usually flap every now and then, which is a good clue it could be a Harrier. I commented, "Now if a Harrier would just come by." A short time later I saw a bird come over the brow. Dihedral like a TV, but it flapped some. A Northern Harrier! Even though it was a pretty close bird, Tim couldn't seem to get on it. He said he was seeing two birds, which turned out to be a couple of sharpies. Finally he also found the immature Harrier, and it flew right over the lookout, not too high up. One of the sharpies was not far behind. First harrier he'd ever seen "at altitude". To that point, the bird of the day.
The "icing on the cake" came at 1554. Two small birds came around the brow of the north ridge, and they both showed sharply-pointed wings and strong continuous flapping. Two Merlin's! They were only separated by 30-40 feet, one right behind the other! They passed close enough that we got decent looks as the pair of small, dark falcons zoomed south. They are usually solitary. I'm not sure I've ever had two come through so close together. This was truly a memorable sighting to cap off a good day!
Also saw 16 migrant Monarch butterflies.
Reporting: William G. (Bill) Haley"
I appreciate Bill's quick reporting, and apologize to him for delays in getting them up. Such good news. Who could say having 2 Merlins and a Northern Harrier in one afternoon was a less then stellar day? So Happy Tim could be there, welcome to the Hawkwatch. Thanks for joining Bill.
as always...who knows what you'll see or do, IF YOU
KEEP LOOKING UP!!!
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