Sunny, 70, SE winds
With the winds coming out of the SE,
we are treated to a few nice fly-overs of some of our migrating hawks. The fear is that the majority of the
Broadwings have already moved on through, but we still manage to get a few
stragglers making it past our vantage point.
In addition, we had two Bald
eagles, several ospreys, Sharpies, and a kestrel or two. The best sighting of the morning was a
pair of Northern harriers that flew by.
The first was intent on keeping her distance from the group of watchers
and photographers. The second,
however, flew right down the valley within a hundred yards of us and gave us
great looks and great photo-ops.
If you miss these opportunities, you have no one to blame but yourself.
The Northern harrier happens
to be my all-time favorite bird.
They are masters of the sky, able to hover just feet above the ground in
one place for extended periods of time.
At other times, they will be flying at a good pace and higher in the
air. When they spot prey, they can
stop on a dime and drop like a lead balloon directly down onto the unsuspecting
small bird or mammal. Even though
we are watching these harriers move south, there will still be some in the
Hudson Valley and points north during the winter as the year-round range for
the harrier is a narrow band extending through southeast New York. We are lucky folks!
Other blog-worthy hawks flying overhead included the Sharp-shinned hawk......
Osprey.......
And Cooper's hawk. All-in-all, it was a productive day species-wise if not great numbers. We'll take what we get!
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