Look What's Abroad

Enhanced View



 

Several days ago, while taking a break in the afternoon,  I watched this Broadwing fly into the back of the property.  This is one of my favorite hawks.  It's one of the smaller hawks, easily recognized by its tail and, in flight, its pointed wings.  It's diet consists of small mammals, reptiles and insects.  By the way, we have an abundance of small mammals and lizards.

 

This is a juvenal recognizable by its black moustachial streak.



Original Photograph

On the Wing

 

This is the hawk of which I spoke in my previous post.  What a sight to see—150 to 200 hawks in a kettle!  This is a favorite hawk for me, and only one with which I’ve become familiar as an adult.  I can remember staring at Red Tailed Hawks making lazy circles over the fields in the summers of my youth. However, this one became known to me later.



The Broad-winged Hawk is unusual in size and proportion.  It doesn’t have the considerable size of some Red Tails and is not small as the American Kestrel.  Yet, what catches my eye is the breadth of its wings and the banding of its tail.  When you can find a hawk with alternating white and black stripes in equal amount on its tail, it’s a safe bet the hawk is a Broad-winged.

 

 

I really enjoy this time of year.  Migration and the crisp mornings of fall, such a perfect time to grab your binoculars and scope and head to the field. 

Photographs by Bill Ravenscroft.