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

Stats from the Past

                                                                                                                                 HOME
Click on the individual charts to read them more clearly.
Above are the stats from years 1993 to 2004, scanned from the brochure
SODDY MOUNTAIN HAWK LOOKOUT
printed here by permission of
compiler and author, Bill Haley.
Thanks Bill.

(Double click on the chart to bring up all columns, including Totals, Hours and Days)



Notice one outstanding year for Broad-winged hawks under the column (BW) for the year 2002.  The total seen in this fall count were 5073, the largest number seen from our site until that date.  We are presently having one of those banner years for Broad-wings, but many of the other species seem in short supply as of September 26, 2012. 
 
                                                             **************

This year may not be manned for many hours past the September season to record movement of Red-tails, Red-shoulders and Vultures whose species will migrate in October and November. (See schedule on the SPECIES page.)   We hope that among the Hawk lovers, persons, with fresh sets of eyes, will  fall in love  with Hawk Watching to the extent we have, and find this hobby to be worth their while.  Dedicating even a couple of years of time leads to an ongoing account of the health of Eastern Hawk populations.  And it is just plain fun. But to all who just love to see the birds and know more about them - Happy Hawk Watching!!  Double click to open the entire chart:




GRAND TOTALS THROUGH 2013 FALL SEASON:
BROAD-WINGED HAWKS - 49,399
ALL RAPTORS - 69,425
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As of September 18, 2014, 9:49 am, we crossed the 50,000 mark for Broad-winged Hawks counted in fall from this site.

Note: In the above charts, low numbers in comparison with traditionally higher counts, does not mean there were fewer birds flying through on migration, necessarily.  It usually means fewer hours were being spent by hawk-watchers  at the site.  (Due to illness or work schedules, or numbers of watchers available at the time.)

2014 is in the Books

Season Totals as seen in chart below: 3352



 
 
 
 
GRAND TOTALS THROUGH 2014 FALL SEASON:
BROAD-WINGED HAWKS - 52,273
ALL RAPTORS - 72,777 Raptors

 
At count's end, it was also obvious that we had crossed the all Raptors mark of 70,000 Raptors counted in fall from this site

_________________________________


As of September 26, 2015, 6:00 pm, we closed the day with 60,027 Broad-winged Hawks counted in fall from this site.

(Grand Total after September count 2015 -
 Broad-winged Hawks  60,336


GRAND TOTALS AT SEASON'S END 2015:
BROAD-WINGED HAWKS - 60,408
ALL RAPTORS - 81,395




2015 is in the Books

Season Totals as seen in chart below: 8618




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GRAND TOTALS AT SEASON'S END 2016:
BROAD-WINGED HAWKS - 61,816
ALL RAPTORS - 83,537



2016 is a Wrap

Season Total as seen in chart below: 2142




_____________________

2017 Finals

The September event closed on the 30th with the following record -
BWs  64,088
All Raptors 85,902

GRAND TOTALS AT SEASON'S END 2017:
AS OF 12/12/2017
BROAD-WINGED HAWKS - 64,095
ALL RAPTORS - 86,617

Season Total as seen in chart below: 2928



(copied from Hawkcount.org )


___________________________________________




2018 Is "Water Under the Bridge"


Last season was newsworthy due to the number of fires across the ridgelines north and south of the watch.
 This year was notable for the amount of rain, causing floods in Soddy Daisy below the lookout,
 and record amounts of rain for the year and the month.

September closed on the 30th with the following record:
BW's +3473  ~  67,568
All Raptors + 3546  ~  90,163

Crossed the 90,000 GT for all seasons on Oct. 30, 2018
with a 332 Raptor total for the day.

GRAND TOTALS AT SEASON'S END 2018:
AS OF 12/31/18
BROAD-WINGED HAWKS - 67,738
ALL RAPTORS - 91,141


Season total raptors as recorded in chart below: 4524


 
copied from Hawkcount.org
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2 comments:

  1. Soddy Mountain Hawk WatchOctober 5, 2020 at 12:26 PM

    The Blog has become outdated, and I can no longer update the stats page, but perhaps this comment will post.
    2019's year was Bill's slowest Year ever. There were only 901 hawks all season. The breakdown is available on Hawkcount.org under Soddy Mtn hawk Watch, year 2019, final chart, on Dec 7, Under the monthly stats.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Soddy Mountain Hawk WatchOctober 5, 2020 at 12:34 PM

      Total:
      Fall 2019 133.5 hours
      BV TV OS BE NH SS CH NG RS BW RT RL GE AK ML PG UA UB
      42 508 3 13 11 50 19 0 9 197 41 0 1 3 4 0 0 0 total901

      Delete

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