Last Fews Days of SEPT 2020

Soddy Mountain, TN hawk totals Sat., Sept. 26, 2020 Duration: 1000-1730 = 7.5 hrs. Counters: Bill Haley, 1000-1730 Jim Kolinsky, 1030-1400 (Crossville, TN) Harold Birch 1430-1700 Weather: 1000 clouds 98%, wind 0, temp. 68F, visib. 30K; 1100 clouds 90%, wind SE 2-5, temp. 71F; 1200 clouds 95%, wind ENE 2-5, temp. 73F, visib. 50K; 1300 clouds 85%, wind S 3-8, temp. 75: 1400 clouds 95%, wind S 2-5, temp. 77F, visib. 70K; 1500 clouds70%, temp. 79F; 1600 clouds 85%, temp.80F. Hawks by hour: 1000-1100: 0 1100-1200: SS 2 1200-1300: CH 1, BW 6 1300-1400: SS 1, BW 2, PG 1 1400-1500: OS 1, SS 1, BW 1 1500-1600: OS 1, SS 2, BW 1, RT 1 1600-1700: BE 1, SS 1, BW 2, PG 1 1700-1730: BW 2 OS 2, BE 1, SS 7, CH 1, BW 14, RT 1, PG 2 Total raptors: 28 Monarch butterflies 44 Reporting: William G. (Bill) ______________________ Soddy Mountain, TN report, 9-27-20 Counters: Bill Haley, 1000-1100, 1200-1730= 6.5 hr. John Webb, 1200-1300 Ruth Ann Henry, 1400-1730 Weather: Started cloudy, with rain from 1100-1200. Clouds down to 50% by 1300, diminishing to 10% by 1700. Winds were light all day, mostly ESE or S 2-5. Temperature from 72-82 F Hawks by hour: 1000-1100: 0 1200-1300: BW 6 1300-1400: SS 1, BW 2 1400-1500: SS 2, BW 1, ML 1 1500-1600: SS 1, ML 1 1600-1700: SS 5 1700-1730: 0 Total Hawks: SS 9, BW 12, ML 2 = 23 Total hawks The big numbers I hoped for didn't show up. Are the Broad-wings done? I don't think so, but the next week will tell the tale. It was nice to see 2 Merlins, our first of the fall.The accipiters are starting to show up and the sharpies had a good late day flight. Reporting: William G. (Bill) Haley KEEP LOOKING UP!!!!

BECAUSE OF THE RUNON....

Because of the runon, I have had some difficulty posting Bill's posts. So I am going to try to copy the graph at the end of the month from Hawk Migration Association of America. At that time I will post updates in the blog of our grand totals. For now, I remind you, I cannot update the sidebars with this year's totals. But everytime I have checked, the pages aresearchable. so please use the tabs or the drop down menu on your phone to see pages to past records, ID helps, best numbers and especially directions. I will attempt before next year to get a new website up and running. And since I am recovering the posts as quickly as I am able without spending all day everyday doing it, I will be able by then to start putting the recovered pages up as archived with links to this site. Until then, I will copy paste the last few entries to our facebook site, mostly copy pastes of Bill's own facebook posts, or emails to us: ***Bill posted this story to his timeline. A little let down after his big day. "After 4,070 raptors yesterday, I awoke to the second worst weather condition for a hawkwatcher. The first? A sustained driving rain. The second? A clear blue sky! And it was to remain that way. ALL. DAY. LONG. It is incredibly difficult to find hawks flying at a very high altitude in a blue sky. Rising columns of heated air, called thermals, boom on a day like today and hawks ride those thermals to great heights. They are mostly white underneath, which makes it even harder for us earthbound hawkwatchers to see them. Yesterday we had plenty of nice clouds, and they make a nice backdrop for spotting hawks. I arrived at 11:30 and began scanning. A kettle of 27 Broad-winged Hawks was found before noon, thanks to the PDL principle. That's Pure Dumb Luck. The hawkwatcher's friend on a day such as this. It was six minutes into the next hour when one Broadie was located, thanks to the Blind Hog rule. You've probably heard the old saying,"Even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then". Yep, that was it. For the next four hours, I scanned the empty blue sky. Were there hawks flying? Almost certainly. Did I find any more? No. I tried the "Harold Birch technique", keeping my binoculars on vultures or passing airplanes, hoping I might see hawks in the background. (You'd be surprised how often this works.) Not today. I tried a proven hawk bait, my signature peanut butter and dill pickle sandwich. (You'd be even more surprised how often this has produced hawk sightings). No takers today. I spent a lot of time scanning areas where hundreds of hawks flew yesterday. It was an empty blue desert today. Final total: 28 Broad-winged Hawks in 4.5 hours." All you can do is KEEP LOOKING UP!!! *** Copying Bill's own facebook post for todays totals. "My last bird of the day after a 7 hour stint on the Soddy Mountain Hawkwatch was an adult Bald Eagle (BE) that glided directly over me less than 50 feet up. Nice ending! I was encouraged this morning to see some cirrus cloud "mares tails". Thin clouds, but better than yesterday's zero clouds. The clouds increased during the day, which was even better. First hawk of the morning was a female Northern Harrier (NH), the first of fall 2020. Harriers are one of my favorites! They fool you into thinking they are Turkey Vultures with the way they hold their wings in a very shallow V, called a dihedral. Then they give themselves away by flapping every now and again, something Turkey Vultures seldom do. They have long wings and long tails and a white patch on their rump, which can be hard to see from underneath. My friend Harold Birch joined me just in time to see it. We spotted another one over the valley about an hour later. We added another new species for the fall when an Osprey (OS) was seen shortly after 1:00. An experienced hawkwatcher can ID Ospreys at extreme distances, just by the way they hold their wings in an M-shaped configuration. Are you sensing that hawk identification relies on recognizing subtle clues from their manner of flight? As I stated earlier, it is a VERY specialized form of birding. Key to other hawks: Sharp-shinned (SS), Broad-winged (BW). Final totals, 9-22-20: NH 2, OS 1, BE 2, SS 1, BW 16 Also counted 59 migrating Monarchs butterflies." Welcome Harold back to the hill! KEEP LOOKING UP! *** Bill sent us an email, of his results before the rain began. Rained out today, of course: "Jimmy and Cynthia; It was a poor day on the lookout. I was there from 9:30-1:30. Although there was some clearing from 11 to 1 dropping to 50%, the hawks weren't moving. It seems like they didn't want to fly into the rain coming towards us from the most recent hurricane. When I left at 1:30, cloud cover was almost 100%. It was 11:49 before my first countable bird, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, flew low over the lookout. It had a full crop,which indicated a recent meal. Maybe it ate one of Sue's feeder birds for breakfast before continuing south. I only saw two Broad-wings, both at extreme altitude, at 11:58 and 12:19. Although my aching shoulders could attest to lots of scanning overhead, I could find no more. The only other hawk seen was a Northern Harrier at 12:01. I counted 19 migrant Monarch butterflies. Bill " KEEP LOOKING UP!!!! Thx for checking in, C

BEST DAY EVER FOR BILL AND TAMI ON THE SODDY DAISY WATCH I've long wished Bill Haley could have one of the super days on the Lookout like some Jimmy, Harold, Bill Holt and ohters with us had in years gone by when Bill could not be up with usl Well, today was his day! this is todays report: " Today was THE DAY I have been waiting for. Best day of Broad-wing hawkwatching this fall, or any of my previous 26 years at Soddy Mountain Hawkwatch. There to share the excitement were Tami King, Susan and Gray Carter. The Carter's, from Russellville, AL, camped last night and came back for another day. They are glad they did. Lookout was covered for 7.5 hours, from 10:00-5:30. Final totals: Bald Eagle - 3 adults Sharp-shinned - 2 Cooper's - 3 Broad-winged- 4,066. Highlight was an awesome river of 2,812 Broad-wings at 1:16. By far the most hawks I've ever seen at one time. They just kept coming! You could look back along their path and the stream was 15-20 birds wide as far as you could see. It was an unforgettable experience. I'd just told the Carter's the thing that keeps me coming back each year is knowing what's possible. Now they understand what I meant! Other notable groups were 55, 73, 134, 237, 231, 81 and 119. The 1:00 hour we had 2,990 BW; 2:00 hr we had 724. Susan and Fray had to leave at 3:00. After they left, Tami and I spotted another 179 Broad-wings in the 3:00 and 4:00 hours. Yep, it was a great day on the lookout! Bill P.S. this is not our all-time daily BW record. Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson had one almost 5,000 day several years back" I am so Glad Tami and The Carters were there to help! And so excited for them. What a marvelous day! This is traditionally the week, that if the weather has birds backed up, and the air is cool enough that the hawks don't get too high to see. We were expecting at least one good day. Tomorrow could be good too. I certainly hope so. I've had a little difficulty posting his other numbers, but here is his Sept 19 totals as well.: "Soddy Mountain hawk report Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020 Duration: 0900-1630 = 7.5 hr. Counters: Bill Haley, Tammy King, Fray Carter, Susan Carter Weather: wind NE 5-10 mph most of day, decreasing to 2-5 mph after 1400, clouds 100% all day, temperature 63-76 F, visibility 15K in morning to 40k in afternoon. Raptors by hour: 0900-1000: 0 1000-1100: 1 SS, 11 BW 1100-1200: 14 BW 1200-1300: 13 BW 1300-1400: 0 1400-1500: 31 BW 1500-1600: 32 BW 1600-1630: 0 TOTAL: 1 SS, 101 BW = 102 Other sightings: Red-breasted Nuthatch (1) Local birds (non-countable): Bald Eagle (2 ad., 1 imm.), Red-shouldered Hawk (4), Red-tailed Hawk (1), Cooper's Hawk (1). Monarch butterfly (1) Reporting: William G. (Bill) Haley" Congrats!!!! Bill and Tami and crew.

Bill Haley posted this message for the: "Second day on my Soddy Mountain hawk lookout, Thursday, September 17. The morning was overcast with remnants from the hurricane. We got far less rain overnight than I expected. I noticed a few little breaks with some blue sky, so hurried on up to the mountain. I arrived at 10:30 to 90% clouds and 5-10 mph winds out of the NW. Visibility was pretty good at 45 K. Didn't see the first countable hawk till I spotted one gliding swiftly down the valley. Knowing Broad-wings sometimes travel with others, I scanned back along it's flight path, there was a second bird following it. It was 12:50 before I saw another 6, then 7 more during the 1:00 hour. The wind was extremely variable today, one minute NW, then SE, then N. The clouds cleared some by 1:00, down to 65%, and I hoped for more hawks, but action remained slow. The last hawk of the day was a Cooper's Hawk. Final total 15 Broad-winged Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk. I had to leave at 3:00 because of an unfortunate sunblock in the eye incident. Had to get home and wash it out well! Many of you know I'm a wildflower lover, so I took some photos from around the lookout and along the road where I park. No person planted these flowers. They were put there by THE Master Gardener - GOD. It is a wildflower paradise right now, which makes my time there even more enjoyable! Thanks Bill 15 BW, 1 Coopers" Keep Looking Up!!!

Well, it's Fall Migration Season for 2020. With Covid 19 limiting what we can do, our reports are not about trying to get people on the watch. But, Bill Haley has moved to a property much closer to the watch, as well as having retired from the Aquarium. He therefore has high hopes of getting up often to see the migration this year. A few days ago I shared a report from Hawk Mountain, showing a video of a large kettle of Broadwings passing over their site. It remiinded me of the skies at Hazel-Bazemore in Texas, or the posts from the Middle Americas. A lot of Hawks. I said I hoped all those didn't go north of us because of the Hurricane Sandy which came ashore to our south over Dauphin Island. Bill's response was...they didn't! Here's a post he tagged me in on Facebook: First report 2020 Wednesday, September 16 Today was my first day on the Soddy Mountain hawk lookout at the terminus of Jones Gap Road in Soddy-Daisy, TN. My 27th year of monitoring the hawk migration! As I looked out over the beautiful Tennessee River Valley, I noticed a few new scars, a few new houses, but the land itself was unchanged. It welcomed me like an old friend, and I consider it as such. We are well acquainted after 26 years. The first few hundred sweeps of the sky will become many thousands by the end of November. Hawkwatching is an extremely specialized form of bird watching. It is the art of looking far, identifying distant specks. And yes, it CAN be done! First hawk of the season was a Broad-winged Hawk that was cruising down the ridge, flapping occasionally because cloudy conditions weren't producing a lot of lift. Another nice adult bird followed a few minutes later. I was happy not to get skunked! One other single Broad-wing and a Cooper's Hawk were added in the next hour. At 4:02 I spotted a kettle of 20 Broad-wings, but more birds were gliding to join them. Ended up with 38 in that group. Not a bad start for day one! THIS BLOGSPOT HAS CHANGED IT'S FORMAT TO SOMETHING NEW WHICH MAKES IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO ENTER THE DATA AS I HAVE IN THE FORMER YEARS. I AM NOT SURE HOW THAT MAY WORK ON THEIR NEW FORMAT, OR IF I WILL BE ABLE TO CREATE A NEW BLOG AND PROVIDE LINKS. HOPEFULLY THIS BLOG WILL REMAIN VIEWABLE FOR THE YEARS TO COME. IF NOT, IT WILL BE LOST SADLY. IT HAS BEEN A RECORD WHICH LIKE MANY THINGS I KEPT ON FLOPPY DISKS AND VIDEO TAPES ARE OR HAVE BEEN LOST, UNLESS I CAN COME UP WITH FUNDS TO HAVE IT ALL DIGITIZED. I AM TOTALLY UNABLE TO DO A RUNNING TOTAL, OR POST THE DAILIES ON THE SIDEBARS. I AM SORRY TO REPORT THIS AND AM SORRY I AM NOT TECH SAVVY ENOUGH AT THIS TIME TO START UP IMMEDIATELY THE REPORTS ON THE NEW FORMAT. SINCERELY, CYNTHIA KEEP LOOKING UP! SIGH