Day 324: November 20th – End of the Watch

Partly sunny, mid 40s, calm

Ecclesiastes 3:1

To everything there is a season, and

a time to every purpose under heaven

       We spent last weekend enjoying the bounty of the season of migration.  Arctic migrants such as crossbills, redpolls, eiders, a variety of ducks, and more were assembled at Cape Ann in Massachusetts as they followed their food source south. 

Broad-winged hawk from earlier

       Likewise, for the past three months, we have enjoyed watching the hawks and eagles from the north move through southeastern New York on their way to points south following the gravy train.  Sadly, most of the migrating hawks have made their move and today when Sharon and I visited the “HawkWatch” site on top of Bear Mountain, we saw empty skies and empty spaces where our “watchers” used to assemble.

Empty skies over Bear Mountain this afternoon

       Peering across the Hudson at Anthony’s Nose, there were no folks on their watch either.  The migration has slowed to a crawl and accordingly, the “Watch” has ground to a halt.  It’s all part of the yearly cycles of life.  “To everything there is a season…” and we have watched and have involved ourselves with the yearly journey the splendid hawks and eagles make each year.  Like clockwork,  you can count on the Broadwing hawks to begin to trickle through the Hudson Valley and past Bear Mountain in early September.  They’ll peak sometime around the third week of that month and then the numbers passing each day will diminish.  The Sharp-shinned hawks will be soon to follow, and later in the month, the Cooper’s hawks will start moving through.  In October, it’s the Merlins, the Peregrines, and an occasional Red-shouldered hawk.  In November, it’s time for the Golden eagles.  There are never as many of these magnificent birds to be counted as the other groups, but seeing just several of these during the early part of the month makes hanging on worth while.

       Finally, the Rough-legged hawks will move into the valley in mid-November and into the winter months.  Many will find enough food here in the form of voles and mice to remain here for the winter months before returning to their breeding grounds in the sub-Arctic and Arctic regions of North America.

       So, while we’ll miss many of these beautiful raptors and buteos for the rest of this year, new winter visitors will be making their presence known just as they have up north in Massachusetts.  Indeed, there is a “time to every purpose under heaven.”