A beautiful sunny day
with mild NW winds and low 70s
Following yesterday’s
tempest, today is a gorgeous pre-fall day with bright sunshine and cool
temperatures. We decided to spend
the afternoon at the hawkwatch atop Bear Mountain in the hopes of coming across
one of the major migratory moves of Broadwing hawks which occur in
mid-September. One thing we’ve
learned about Bear Mountain is that the prevailing winds must be out of the
Southeast in order to bring in the most birds. The wind is exactly the opposite today meaning one thing……birds
will be at a premium.
Upon our arrival, I spotted a
Bald eagle heading down the valley far to our south. We have more and more eagles frequenting the Hudson Valley
over the past decade and some will actually spend their entire lives here. If, however, we see a bird heading
south with a certain level of “determination”, we assume it is a migrant.
From that point on, it was
downhill. In spite of ideal
viewing conditions with fluffy cumulus clouds punctuating crystal clear skies,
there was nothing to see other than an occasional resident Red-tailed hawk, a
rarer than usual Black vulture, and one lone Eastern wood pewee that perched in
front of our viewing station.
One lone Sharp-shinned hawk
did manage to garner our attention as it zipped by us heading due south, but
that was about all she wrote. With
mid-September being the peak for the Broadwings, we can only hope that the next
day or so will see a shift of the wind patterns to the SE.
Meanwhile, we ended the day
with a quick drive though our old stand-by, Iona Island. It was actually pretty birdy if only
with species we often see around these parts. Nonetheless, it was nice to get a couple of shots of this cedar waxwing after
spending a very quiet afternoon on the mountain. Any port in the storm, as they say.
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