Hawk Watch Highlights

We had quite a week hawkwatching last week. Tuesday 9/16 there were 980 hawks, Wednesday 9/17 there were 860 hawks and Thursday 9/18, there were an awesome 2,533 hawks migrating past Pack Monadnock Raptor Migration Observatory where we hawk watch in southern NH. Other hawk watch sites in New England also had a great day on Thursday with 3,816 hawks being seen south of us from Mt. Wachusett in MA and 5,223 hawks seen from Mt. Watatic in MA. The vast majority of these were Broad-winged Hawks, who are on their way to Central and South America and will be passing by southern hawk watch sites in the mid-Atlantic states and the Gulf Coast.
For the next few days I'll show you some highlight photos, starting with this crowd-aweing dogfight between 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks (note the squarish tails, a great way to tell Sharp-shinned Hawk from the look-alike Cooper's Hawk.) Don't know why they do this, they just do. The first photo makes my head spin, the top bird is just about bending over backwards. They basically just chase one another, not hurting one another, for a bit, then continue their migration. Even though the Broad-wing Hawks have left New England, lot of Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper's Hawks, Merlins, Kestrels, Ospreys and more will still be migrating through Oct.