More Hawks Again

Some of the hawk-watchers at Pack Monadnock Raptor Migration Observatory, scanning the skies in different directions to find hawks. Don is in the middle in the tan shirt.

During a lunch break, Phoebe, our Corgi, meets a Golden Retriever.

Broad-winged Hawks, in a "kettle," a group of Broadwings rising on a thermal of warm air, their preferred mode of transport to their wintering grounds in Central and South America.

Phoebe is helping Lillian spot the kettles.

Don and our friend David (in green), scanning the skies. We were treated to several sightings of Bald Eagles, so majestic as they passed over our heads.

Don, Lillian and Lance, the official hawk counter on Pack Monadnock, who is hired by New Hampshire Audubon Society.

On Sat. our own property we looked for hawks as a cold front came through. The high winds of the front brought the hawks low and we saw 351 hawks over our own hayfield. Sunday we went back to Pack Monadnock Raptor Migration Observatory for another great raptor show and saw many more hawks. It has been a very good hawk migration season here in southern New England and there may still be more hawks to come. So keep looking up and go to a hawk watch site near you. Above are some photos from yesterday. For more tips on identifying hawks in flight go here.

Hawks Again

Osprey

The View off the hawk-watch site of Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory

We were hawk-watching yesterday at Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory in NH, and again this morning and have seen fabulous hawks. Hawk-watching is one of our favorite activities. When we've spent the day up on the mountain staring into the blue sky, watching hundreds of hawks circling above, then come down off the mountain, we feel a part of ourselves is still up there in the sky soaring with the hawks. It's addictive. Below are some photos from the two days.

American Kestrels flew right by our heads

Lillian scanning for hawks

Broad-winged Hawks coming off a thermal

During the noontime hours yesterday, the hawks were rising so high on the thermals, we felt we were missing many and Don and another hawk-watcher were on their backs, scanning high up hoping to find the hawks.

Broad-winged Hawk flapping

Mostly Broadwings soar with their wings open and look for rising thermals of hot air to give them lift.

Groups of elementary school children, who were studying raptors as part of their curriculum, came each day to see the hawks. They were lucky that many hawks were flying and were thrilled to get some close views.

Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory is operated by New Hampshire Audubon Society, who raffled off one of our signed Stokes Field Guide To Birds to anyone who became a member that day. Here are the winners.

Broadwings up high can look tiny in your binoculars.

Another group of students from Antioch New England College also came up with their teachers. Don is giving them hawk-watching tips and helping them spot the birds. What a wonderful opportunity it is to share information and get students excited about the hawks. Hopefully some of them will get addicted too and turn into hawk conservationists in the future.

1,487 Hawks at Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory

Yesterday we saw 1,487 Hawks at Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory. 1,352 of them were Broad-winged Hawks. After a slow start, the majority of the Broad-winged numbers were seen in the afternoon. Some were close and we had nice views. Other Broadwings in distant "kettles" looked like pepper flakes, just like in the photo above. There were many Broadwings still in the air at 5:00 pm., looking for lift. Many of them will spend the night nearby in southern N.H. This morning many of those hawks will begin migrating again, and will be seen from the southern New England hawk watch sites such as Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory and Mt. Watatic.
More photos and info to come.

Gone Hawk-watching!

We're going hawk-watching. Today could be a good day. If you have a chance, go out with your binos and look up at the sky. See our post yesterday for tips on watching hawks.

Hawk-watching Tips

Broad-winged Hawk, adult. Has thick, black-and-white tail bands.

The hawks are coming! The hawks are coming! We're entering prime hawk migration time for birders in the northern and eastern half of the U.S. The weather here in NH today is cold, cloudy and very windy. Some hawks, such as Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks, Merlins and American Kestrels, will move under these conditions, but Broad-winged Hawks, an abundant migrant, migrate by using rising thermals. Tomorrow's weather conditions of clear and sunny, with mild northwest winds, should produce ideal conditions for Broad-winged Hawk migration. Most of the northeast hawk-watch sites have seen low number of Broadwings so far this fall, except one site on Mt. Philo, VT near Burlington. Monday, Sept. 10th, when most of the rest of New England was rainy, they had over 3,000 Broad-winged Hawks pass them. There are still many more hawks to migrate out of New England, so plan on looking.

Here are some tips for watching hawks:

1. Prime Broad-winged Hawk migration in the North is Sept. 11 to 25, in the South (TX) it is Sept. 25th to Oct. 10.

2. Prime Sharp-shinned Hawk migration in the Northeast is Sept. 1 to Oct. 10, in the Mid-Atlantic States it is Sept. 10 to Oct. 20, in the West it is Sept. 11 to Oct. 31.

3. Hawks usually move most under sunny skies with mild northwest, north or northeast winds. Broad-winged Hawks require thermals to move.

4. Go hawk-watching at one of the many "official" hawk-watch sites here. Or find your own by going to a hill, mountain, or tall structure available to you that has good views to the north, because that is the direction the hawks are coming from.

5. Bring binoculars that are at 8 power, or even 10 power if you have them. Scan slowly back and forth across the sky at different heights to find the hawks. Most hawks will be fairly far away and some may look like specs. Learn hawk shapes at a distance to identify them.

6. Here's a brief look at the most common hawks you will see:

Broad-winged Hawk, adult

Broad-winged Hawk, juvenile

* Broad-winged Hawks. These are medium-sized hawks, 16" long, with broad wings, and soar together in groups. Look for the broad black-and-white tail bands seen on the adults, usually visible even at a distance. Juvenile Broad-winged Hawks have thin tail bands and dark streaking that is usually heaviest on the sides of the breast.


* Sharp-shinned Hawks. These are small, about Blue Jay-sized, 12" long, hawks in the accipiter group. They migrate mostly singly with flap-flap-flap glide flight and have short rounded wings and a somewhat long tail that has a squared end.


* Cooper's Hawks. These are extremely similar to Sharp-shinned Hawks, and are a tricky ID challenge, but are somewhat larger, 17" long, with a longer, rounded tail and larger, longer head and similar flight pattern.

* American Kestrels. These are a type of falcon. They are smaller than a Sharp-shinned Hawk, about 10 1/2" long, with pointed wings and a long tail and fly mainly with continuous flapping.

* Merlins. Very similar to a Kestrel but darker and larger, about 12" long. Has broad, pointed wings and a somewhat shorter tail than a Kestrel. Flies swiftly and strongly. See yesterday's blog entry for details on Merlin vs. Kestrel ID.

* Turkey Vultures. Very large, about 27" long, all black birds that constantly soar with their wings held in a V.

7. Keep track of your numbers and turn them in to your local bird or hawk-watching oganization.

Merlins and Kestrels

American Kestrel, male

American Kestrel, female

Lillian, watching the Kestrels and Merlins

Merlin

Merlin

Don watching the flying falcons

The weather here is socked in with fog and drizzle. We walked out on our hayfield, which was recently cut and baled, the nesting Bobolinks and American Bittern having safely fledged. We birded the area and saw 4 American Kestrels, some hunting from the hay bales, and 2 Merlins flying around the field. These hawks were not migrating much due to the inclement weather. What a treat to see these falcons. At one point a Merlin was chasing 2 Kestrels. It's a nice warm up to the hawk-watching spectacle to come. We think Thursday will be a good hawk-watching day in the Northeast because a front is coming through on Wed. Thursday will be clear and sunny with mild northwest winds, just the conditions hawks like for migration.

We ID many flying hawks by their shapes first, since you often cannot see colors or markings on hawks at a distance. The backlit Merlin photo wonderfully shows its shape: the moderately long, strongly-tapered wings; the broad head and short neck; a relatively short tail.

Compare the Merlin shape to the Kestrel shape. Note that the American Kestrel has long, narrow, pointed and strongly tapered wings and a long tail. In general, the greatest width of the wing on a Kestrel will be shorter than the length of its tail (measured from the base of its wings to the tip of the tail), and on a Merlin, the greatest width of the wing will approximately be greater than the length of its tail. Merlin vs. Kestrel is an ID challenge for birders when hawk-watching. These clues will help.

Plan on going hawk-watching Thursday if you can. It's a good bet you'll see some hawks. Go to one of the many official hawk-watch sites, or just find any high spot, of ground, or a building, where you have a clear view of the northwest and scan the sky. Hawks will fly from early to late, but most are seen between about 9:30 am to 4:30 pm.

Think Hawk-watching!

Broad-winged Hawk

A "kettle" of migrating Broad-winged Hawks. The larger birds are Turkey Vultures.

Hawk-watching season is now starting. We're closely watching the weather and will drop everything and go birding to watch migrating hawks soon, when we think they're most likely to move. Then you'll see a "gone hawk watching" sign on our blog.

The big excitement is, we're hoping to see large numbers of Broad-winged Hawks who traditionally migrate in mid-Sept., usually between Sept. 11- 25th, in the northen part of the eastern half of the country, from the Midwest to New England. Broadwings migrate in big groups by rising up on thermals with wings spread — we call this a "kettle" of hawks. The Broadwings then tuck their wings when they're at the top of a thermal and "peel off"— glide down to the next thermal. It's sort of like getting elevator rides and an energy efficient means of moving to their distant wintering grounds. Many other hawks migrate during this time also, but not in the large groups and big numbers of Broadwings.

Broadwings eat mainly amphibians and reptiles so, when the weather turns colder and their food source disappears, the Broadwings head out of here for warmer climates. They actually migrate all the way down the U.S., to Central America and South America, their wintering areas.

Birders will be at all the major hawk-watching sites in the eastern half of the country, from Hawk Ridge, Duluth, MN, to Cape May, NJ, to watch the Broadwings and other hawks migrate.

We'll take you hawk-watching with us at our site, Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory, in southern NH, during the next week.

Macaronesian/Little Shearwater

Greater Shearwater

Greater Shearwater

One of the last frontiers of birding is extreme pelagic birding, where birders go out on a boat to offshore waters to find seabirds. We have seen seabirds such as the Greater Shearwater, see photos above, when we went on a pelagic birding trip in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.
Increasingly, birders are finding mega-rare seabirds on such trips. One such rarity recently found was a Macaronesian/Little Shearwater, seen by many NH birders and others on a pelagic birding trip off the coast of Massachusetts. This shearwater is currently classified by the American Ornithologist's Union as a Little Shearwater (Puffinis assimilis baroli) but the British Ornithologist's Union and others now classify this bird as a Macaronesian Shearwater (p. baroli).

To see lots of photos, click here.

To read a description of the event from the NH. Birds listserve, click here.

To see a map of where this sighting occurred, as well as past sightings of mega-rare seabirds, click here.

You can have the excitement of seeing interesting seabirds by going on such trips. To see a list of the American Birding Association Directory of Pelagic Trips click here.
Also check with your local bird club, or birding organization, most of whom run such trips.

Not So Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler, imm. female

Black-throated Green Warbler, imm. female

Black-throated Green Warbler, imm. female, note yellow wash on vent.

Black-throated Green Warbler, adult male, spring

Continuing on the warbler theme... while birding our property this morning, we saw more warblers. It was great fun to capture these photos and show you what we saw. There was a Black-throated Green Warbler without a black throat, see top 3 photos. That's because she was an immature female Black-throated Green. As we said yesterday, many spring adult warblers change their plumage in fall to more muted colors and patterns. In addition, immature warblers in fall are often paler than adults, especially immature female warblers who can be the most challenging for a birder to identify.

This Black-throated Green warbler has a similar face pattern to the adult, with a yellowish face surrounding an olive cheek patch. She also has that yellowish wash on her lower flanks coming down across her vent area. This clue is consistent for all ages and sexes of Black-throated Green Warbler and a great clue to help you identify immature female Black-throated Greens. Her throat shows no black, only faint slaty smudges at the edges of her lower throat. She was rather tame and let me approach to photograph. Maybe she wanted to be on the blog.

This morning we also saw a Nashville Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Pine Warbler. If you go birding, or even if you're in your backyard with your binos, be alert to little chips and fast movement in shrubs and trees, especially in the early am, there may be warblers there. To help you identify warblers in fall, see our
Stokes Field Guide To Warblers which has an easy color key to identification and covers all North American Warblers.

Migrating Warblers

Prairie Warbler

Common Yellowthroat, imm. male

Some warblers have already started on their migration. Here are a few we recently saw on "warbler edge," an area of our woods that gets morning sun and faces our field. The warblers like this edge, as insects are active early there because of the warming effect of the sun, so they can feed there. Fortunately, we can see this edge from where we sit with our morning coffee on our deck.
We saw a Prairie Warbler, top photo. Note the bright yellow underneath, streaking on the sides and the darkish semicircle under the eye. Warblers are often harder to identify in the fall because they change their plumage into more muted colors and patterns than spring. The bottom photo is an immature, male Common Yellowthroat. You can see his bright yellow throat and chest and just a few dark feathers on his face. He will eventually acquire the full dark "bandit" like mask of the adult male by next spring. There are many more warblers to come, yeah! We'll be looking.

Young Male Hummingbird

We saw this young, male Ruby-throated Hummingbird at our feeder recently. You can see a few red feathers growing on his throat. Eventually he will have the full red throat, called the gorget, of the adult male Ruby-throated hummer. This is prime time action for hummer feeders now, because hummingbirds are migrating and all the adults, as well as the young of this year are coming to feeders. Have a great holiday weekend. Watch the hummingbirds at your feeders with your binoculars and see if you can find one like him.

400 More Common Nighthawks

Common Nighthawk, migrating

Common Nighthawk at dusk. Note long, thin, pointed wings, white bar near center of outer wing.

Continuing with our nighthawk watch, last night we saw 400 more Common Nighthawks. If you add that to what we saw the night before, you get 765 total nighthawks we've seen in two days. Wow! Again, we had the largest number of nighthawks seen last night, from the towns reporting to the NH/MA nighthawk survey.

Trying not to miss a beat, we had hamburgers on the deck. Looking through our binoculars with one hand, while trying to eat a burger with the other hand, is not an easy trick, but we managed. We didn't want to miss one, single nighthawk.

We watched until 7:45 pm, when the light was very dim. Good thing we had our Stokes DLS binoculars that are twilight optimized, allowing us to see birds even at dusk.

Keep watching for Common Nighthawks during the next few days. Tips for seeing migrating Common Nighthawks:

1. Look during the later afternoon to early evening hours, from about 4 pm to 7:30 pm.
2. Look north, as they generally move from north to south.
3. Get comfortable, use a chair if you can, you will be looking for quite a while. Tuck your elbows in, it is less tiring and steadier to hold binos that way.
4. Nighthawks often move along river corridors
5. Note if there is an ant hatch. Nighthawks are attracted to, and eat, dispersing ants who rise up in clouds.
6. Study the photos above, to learn nighthawk shape. Often you will only see distant birds with long pointed wings, flapping rather slowly. When feeding, nighthawks fly erratically. When migrating, they move more directly and may even rise up on a thermal sometimes.

Nighthawks, Yes!

Common Nighthawk, migrating

Don, Lois and Leon counting nighthawks, Phoebe is resting

Our wishes came true and last night was a great Common Nighthawk migration event. We saw 365 nighthawks. We had some good friends, Lois and Leon from MI, visiting and helping with the count.

In an overview, we saw three very different types of movement: high thermalling in a kettle, fast direct southward flights, fast direct northward flights:

3:52 PM 35 Nighthawks thermalling like Broad-winged Hawks, with wings flat and straight out to the sides, tails closed. They circled up and down (no signs of feeding) and finally rose so high they were out of binocular sight and way into the clouds. This is very unusual and we have not seen Nighthawks act like this before.

4:00-4:41 PM 177 Nighthawks in groups of 61, 7, 4, 5, 20, 18, 2, 27 flying fast directly south and fairly low, no signs of feeding.

4:43-6:55 PM 153 Nighthawks in groups of 90, 4, 5, 14, 2, 11, 14, 3, 1, 7, 1, 1 flying fast directly north at mid height, no signs of feeding.

We cooked outside and ate on the deck, so someone could always be watching. What a thrill it was, and addictive, we just wanted to see more and more. What's cool and exciting about this is that Common Nighthawks are in trouble, with populations dropping. So it's rewarding to see numbers of them. We, from our property, Bobolink Farm, in southern NH, had the highest count for this day of any of the towns in southern NH and upper MA that were reporting. Our property fronts on a dammed up part of a river that forms a pond (really a small lake), and nighthawks often follow river valleys during migration, so we're in an excellent location to see them.

It's interesting that we did not see any ant hatches last night. At this time of year ants will hatch and disperse to new areas and often clouds of ants rise high into the air and the nighhawks feed on them. It's another beautiful, clear day today and a chance to see more nighthawks tonight.

Check your area tonight, especially if you're near a river. If you live in southern NH, or the upper two thirds of MA, you can report your numbers to this Nighthawk Migration Survey website here.

Common Nighthawks Migrating

At sunrise this morning at our property, Bobolink Farn in southern NH, we're hopeful that this will be the night when we see lots of Common Nighthawks migrating. The weather has been very hot and humind with southerly winds. Last night it cleared and a front with cooler temperatures and northeast winds came through.
This is more ideal Common Nighthawk migration conditions.

We also watch for ant hatches, where ants disperse. That usually happens this time of year and, in the past, we've seen migrating Common Nighthawks, who eat aerial insects, feeding on the ants. So far, no big numbers have been seen in southern New England. Nighthawks usually can be seen migrating in the later afternoon and early evening and they often follow river corridors. So if you're anywhere near a river tonight, look for the nighthawks. We'll be watching.