Something truly wonderful happened this past week. For the first time in what seemed like ages, I stepped out my door in the morning, and I heard birds singing. If I wasn’t loaded down with a backpack full of hawk watching gear, I would have jumped for joy! It was the moment I had been waiting for all spring, the final signal that the days of snow and the cold were behind me, and I could say goodbye to my general sense of dystopia.
Raptors migrate significantly earlier than most of their avian brethren, so for all their majesty, they don’t warm the heart like a simple song from a Yellow-rumpled Warbler. The demands of nesting and raising their young requires more time and investment. When their eggs hatch, they need to be sure that all the items listed on their menu are in full supply. So now that the songbirds are arriving in force, raptor migration is beginning to wind down as they are settling into their home territories.
However, like Yogi Berra said, “it ain’t over til the fat hawk screams”… or something like that. So, with a sunny and much warmer week in the forecast, I am keeping high hopes for a four-digit Broad-winged Hawk day. So far, my single-day high count has been just over 600 birds in kettles spread out across the western horizon. For those of you who don’t know, in layman’s terms, a “kettle” can most simply be defined as a group of raptors circling in the sky. In Veracruz, México, as many as 750,000 Broad-winged Hawks have been counted in a single day!
These forest-dwelling hawks are considered to be the most numerous, long-distance migrant of all the raptors, and yet, if you don’t see them in migration, or are not familiar with their high, ear-piercing call, they can go completely unnoticed, or at the very least, unrecognized. I would like to take this opportunity to give props to this hawk. It is renowned among hawk watchers and birdwatchers alike, yet otherwise, it is virtually unknown. This Buteo is not as cosmopolitan as the Red-tailed Hawk, not as handsome as the Red-shouldered Hawk, not as flashy as the Sharp-shinned Hawk, and will never enjoy the fame of the Bald Eagle. It is the bold and beautiful Broad-winged Hawk and, make no mistake, when it comes to kettles they command the sky like no other raptor on earth.
In the meantime, I have been enjoying huge flocks of Blue Jays, numbering in the hundreds, filling the sky in a chaotic cacophony of contact calls. Thinking back to all the days of watching empty skies, this rush of activity and the woosh of wind under their wings as they swoop in from overhead is welcome beyond words. Until next week, keep your eyes on the skies.
Author: Rich Couse, Hawk Counter Spring 2020
Photos: Rich Couse
NEWS: Michigan Audubon’s Birdathon is coming! On the weekend of May 23-24, WPBO field staff will be counting birds to raise money to help continue our various projects. If you would like to donate to the cause, every little bit helps. You can do so by visiting my fundraising page by clicking HERE.
If you are considering visiting the Point, please read this important message from Michigan Audubon and WPBO Field Staff.
Maneuvering the ever-changing implications of COVID-19 has necessitated constant adaptation and evaluation for us all. Michigan Audubon and WPBO have been proactive in taking measures that protect our staff, our physical community in Paradise, and the Michigan birding community, and we have found American Birding Association’s recent guidelines on birding and social distancing a useful resource for guiding bird-related travel decisions. While there are hopeful signs that we are rounding the corner with this virus, Michigan Audubon does not want to sow precocious optimism that encourages long-distance travel. Please take a minute to read these ABA guidelines, and to imagine them through the lens of the eastern Upper Peninsula, which does not have the medical resources of Michigan’s more-developed areas. Chippewa County and its adjacent counties have just three hospitals, and only one of these has more than 100 beds; they all are at least an hour’s drive from the Point. WPBO appreciates and requests your continued conscientiousness as the season’s migration begins to ramp up, and does not condone birding travel that is not local. Keep in mind that the Owl’s Roost Gift Shop and public observation of owl banding are currently closed. In the meantime, we will virtually share the Point with you as best we can until it is safe for all parties to enjoy it together. We hope that will be soon.
