Here’s another photo I got during a recent walk along the beach in southern Connecticut (Connecticut Audubon Society Coastal Center at Milford Point), a herring gull with a crab.
My friend Wayne and I took a walk at a preserve along the coast of southern Connecticut on Labor Day Weekend and found a dozen or more American oystercatchers, three semipalmated plovers, a small flock of least sandpipers, and a black-bellied plover. A few waders (snowy egret, great egret, yellow-crowned night heron) were around too.
Last November, I wrote consecutive bird columns based on the results of the Pack Monadnock Hawk Watch. As I wrote the second column, I made a mental note to write another one before the start of the next hawk watching season. Well, here we are.
Instead of reading about what happened already, now you can get out there and see the spectacle for yourself. So here it is, all you need to know about planning a trip to see the thousands of raptors that will pass over southern New Hampshire this fall.
There are other hawk watch sites in New Hampshire, but Pack Monadnock is the most popular, and for good reason. Expert hawk watchers are on site from September 1 through the middle of November to count the hawks, lead talks and answer questions from visitors. Also, it is the place in the state where the most hawks and greatest variety of raptors may be seen heading south. Hawk watches include hawks, eagles, falcons, ospreys and vultures.
The Pack Monadnock Raptor Observatory, as it is officially called, is located near the top of Pack Monadnock Mountain within Miller State Park off Route 101 in Peterborough. Visitors can drive or hike to the site.
A few hawks have already been counted in August, but the numbers have not started to heat up yet. The most thrilling time at Pack Monadnock, and most other hawk watch sites, is when the broad-winged hawks pass through in staggering numbers. When that happens exactly is both predictable and unpredictable. It will happen sometime in mid-September, that much we know, but weather and wind conditions will determine the exact window.
Last year, I spoke with Phil and Julie Brown of Hancock about the timing. If anyone will know, it’s them. Phil is the Bird Conservation Director and Land Specialist at the Harris Center for Conservation Education. His wife, Julie, is the Raptor Migration and Program Director of the Hawk Migration Association.
Here are a few paragraphs from one of those columns from last November:
“While the broad-winged hawk migration is truly a spectacle, with as many as 3,000 or more seen on a single day, it is very time-specific. September 14-20 is the sweet spot when nearly all of the broad-wingeds pass through, the Browns said. Phil said many people take the entire week off from work to not miss the right day.
“Mark your calendars for the middle of next September and keep your eyes out for a forecast that calls for light or variable winds from the north (or northeast or northwest), particularly following a cold front.”
Last year, the best two-day window by far at Pack Monadnock was September 14 and 15, when 3,160 and 562 broad-winged hawks, respectively, passed over the mountain. September 19 and 20 were also solid with 458 and 403 broad-winged hawks soaring past.
Mid-September is also the best time to see sharp-shinned hawks, the second-most-counted raptor at Pack Monadnock. Last year, there were two days (September 14 and 19) when more than 100 sharpies flew overhead.
Last year, September accounted for 7,280 of the 8,581 total raptors counted at Pack Monadnock. While September is obviously the best month to visit, October is still a strong month. The broad-winged hawks, which account for the majority of the birds counted each fall, are mostly gone by the time October rolls around, but there are still good numbers of species such as sharp-shinned hawks, turkey vultures, northern harriers and red-tailed hawks to be seen. American kestrels and merlins, both small falcons, are also passing through in decent numbers in October.
The hawk watch remains open until mid-November, but the action is fairly slow by then. Red-tailed hawks are still moving through at a decent clip, but most of the other species have stopped completely or slowed to a trickle.
This year I’ve given fair warning. Keep an eye on the forecast in mid-September, head to the mountain and see some hawks. Lots of them.
It was the early 1990s when I lived in Vermont. I was just starting to get interested in wildlife photography, and my friend Steve said he knew where a large flock of turkeys could reliably be found in the evening.
Steve lived about half an hour north of me, and the turkeys were about 20 minutes north of him. At the time, wild turkeys were still fairly uncommon in New England, so I did not hesitate to make the 50-minute drive. A wild turkey flock would make a great addition to my then extremely modest catalogue of wildlife photos.
I met Steve at the spot, and, sure enough, the turkeys were there ─ at the far end where the field met the woods, maybe 75 yards away. I snapped some photos and couldn’t wait to see the results.
Remember, this was well before digital cameras and film was the only way to go. Buy the film, load the camera, take the set amount of photos on the roll, hurry the film to get developed, wait a week or so to pick up the photos (unless you paid extra for quicker service), and excitedly flip through the prints. Buying the film and having it developed was not cheap.
When I finally got the photos back, the turkeys were not perfectly focused, you could say. As Steve commented, “Well, they’re not tack sharp.” Soft focus may work for some photography, but usually not wildlife. Did I mention the photos were grainy too? The subjects were far away, and it was getting dark.
I was disappointed with the results and wondered when I’d get another chance to photograph turkeys.
Fast forward to the present day. I pulled into work the other day and off to my left were about a dozen wild turkeys walking along the driveway. As I drove up to them, I stopped the car and looked at a turkey about four feet away from me. It didn’t look at me and was not fazed in the least by the car. It simply kept slowly walking among the flock toward a small stream.
I see these turkeys on a regular basis at work, which is set in a suburban mix of small buildings, patches of grass and woods. There are times when I see them several days in a row, often close to the buildings or even posing in front of a glass door.
They are not shy. Nor are they aggressive. They are simply there. They don’t bother the people, and the people don’t bother them. Most people love to see them (myself included, of course), some people seem to hardly notice them and some people vilify them. I don’t understand the people who don’t like them. The turkeys are not aggressive and they don’t leave their droppings all over the place. As I mentioned, they are simply there.
Seeing this flock the other day made me think back to that time in Vermont. Back then, turkeys were rare, and opportunities to photograph them were uncommon. Turkey hunting was more of a challenge. It may have been half a lifetime ago for me, but in the grand scheme of things, it may as well have been yesterday.
Turkeys have proliferated quickly, not just in New England, but throughout the entire country. They may be found in all of the lower 48 states and parts of southern Canada. Changing habitat (farm to woods) and successful reintroduction programs are largely responsible for their rebirth.
But why are they so common in suburbs? Why not stay in the woods away from people? Wild turkeys, similar to Canada geese, have adapted well to being around people, and suburban and even some urban areas are rich in food sources. These areas are also largely void of large predators, except for the occasional coyote. Domestic dogs can also pose a threat, but turkeys learn quickly to avoid those yards.
Wild turkeys are a successful bird recovery story. Gone, at least for now, are the days of driving 50 minutes to possibly catch a sight of them. Nowadays, all it takes is driving to work.
The birding action was relatively slow as we tromped along a skid trail used recently by loggers in the wilds of northern New Hampshire.
It was mid-afternoon in July, so the lack of birds was not a surprise. Merlin, the app that identifies bird sounds, picked up the calls of a magnolia warbler and a golden-crowned kinglet, and we found both of them with little effort.
Another bird, not detected by Merlin, flitted among the top of a spruce. Before lifting the binoculars, I would have guessed it was a magnolia warbler because I noted some yellow in the plumage, and magnolias had been plentiful the entire trip.
Through the binoculars, it was evident the bird in question was a blackburnian warbler. It lacked the brilliant fiery color of a breeding male, so it was either a female, first-year bird, or male transitioning to non-breeding plumage. Such is the challenge (and frustration) of summer and fall warbler identification.
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It’s still too early to declare my Bird of the Summer, but one bird has become the clear favorite.
Of course, catbirds and robins are always common sightings in the summer, and I have certainly seen many of those on my recent walks. But ever since early May, my walks seem to be dominated by veeries.
Veeries are thrushes and indeed closely resemble the more common hermit thrush and wood thrush. There are some obvious differences, however, as veeries are a warmer reddish-brown overall with fewer and lighter spots on their chests.
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One of the main reasons why male birds are often more colorful than females was on full display during a recent bird walk.
As I noted in a recent column, summer is an ideal time for birdwatching and observing parent birds raising their young. Finding a nest is always exciting, but it isn’t necessary to confirm that birds are busy caring for youngsters nearby.
Father birds were particularly on edge during my recent walk. I got about halfway down the path when a male rose-breasted grosbeak darted across the trail in front of my face and landed in a nearby shrub. It was clearly agitated by my presence as it fluffed its feathers and chirped an alarm call.
I didn’t want to linger and fluster the bird even more, so I kept on my way.
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I met a talented young artist/illustrator recently, and, of course, this owl drawing stood out to me when he showed me some of his portfolio. He gave his blessing when I asked if I could post it on my website/blog.
Check out more of his work …
Aiden Bae
I’ve seen it dozens of times, but it’s always initially startling when I see a molting cardinal with a bald head.
My home office looks over the side yard where my birdfeeders are located. (No surprise there, I’m sure.) There are tall bushes on either side of the feeders, and most birds perch in one of those before venturing over to the feeders.
Lately, the action has been predictably a bit slower as the birds are busy raising young. Throughout the day, however, the usual assortment of chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, song sparrows, blue jays, mourning doves, downy woodpeckers and cardinals pay visits. So far this summer, as a pleasant surprise, gray catbirds are my most common visitors as they come to eat mealworms and suet. They are also frequent visitors to the birdbath located a few dozen yards away. I never pinpointed it, but I know the catbirds have a nest in one of the nearby bushes.
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Just a few bobolinks I met the other day on a walk.
Birds of New England.com 