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

Thursday, December 5, 2024

Will Thursday Be The Last Day of the 2024 Season?

Wednesday was a day which Bill is just hanging in there to break his all time high of Turkey Vultures, But God sent him a little gift so he wouldn't be discouraged. About 1 15pm an Immature Golden Eagle flew right over his head! What a gift! I wanted to include in this post the number of times we have had Goldens reported from the hawk watch, but I don't have time to do an exact count today. However I am going to do a quick rough count from Stats from the past, and Hawk Count. It might be fairly close. Check the chart below. But let me shift to other stats: Bill only needs 8 TVs after this post to beat his all time high records of that species. He only needs 17 Raptors of any sort to get us to 108,000 for our all time count total, which I will NOT hold him to. His Golden is the first in several years. I single of any bird out of almost 2500 are high odds. It used to be of both Eagles, Golden and Bald, but thankfully Bald Eagles have recovered to a point that they are not such a scare anymore. However they remain at about 1 -1.5% or less of our yearly counts.An interesting note is that our High count of 3 Golden Eagles in 1998 occurred only 1 year following his high count of Turkey Vultures in 1997. Bill will not spend many more days on the ridge. Maybe not even one past Thursday. It isn't quite worth it. but to be so close, I hope God obliges to help with the win. LOL
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