By Anne W. Semmes
Up at the Audubon Center in backcountry Greenwich the annual Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch count has begun of those mighty migrating hawks and more headed south to tropical climes. And as of last Sunday noon the count over the last 24 hours at Audubon were 20 Broad-winged Hawks, plus a couple of Bald Eagles and two Ospreys. And there to count them daily to the end of November was Hawk Count Captain Harry Wales.
But kicking off the official Hawk Watch was Ryan MacLean, Audubon Senior Education Coordinator who did his best to introduce the migratory hawk world to two dozen or more attendees with his slide show and commentary in the Center’s Kiernan Hall. All this in preparation for the heralded Hawk Watch Weekend on September 23 and 24.
MacLean’s show and tell included holding up taxidermic hawk and falcon specimens from the Center’s collection, including the Sharp-shined Hawk he described surprisingly as the size of a Blue Jay. “A bird’s tail is its steering wheel,” he noted. And the Broad-winged Hawk’s flight pattern was “flap, flap, glide.” Falcons were designed as “fighter jets,” and American Kestrels were in decline. But Bald Eagles are “the biggest environmental success story.” And it takes them four to five years to mature to their straight-wing flight profile and to get that white head and tail. A total of 359 Bald Eagles were counted last year, he shared.
Outside the Center attendees with binoculars were shown how best to follow those migrating birds in the great blue and cloudy skies. All binoculars lifted at sight of a Broad-winged Hawk flying overhead. But not migrating yet, said MacLean, “He’s headed northeast, getting ready.” Or maybe he was headed for that owl decoy perched high atop its stand that is much targeted by hawks doing their best to threaten the owl decoy. And MacLean showed how the four cupulas over the Center building were markers to locate birds for hawk watchers.
There was much talk of the forthcoming Hawk Watch Weekend September 23-34 that will include two one-hour Hawk Identification Workshops, Live Raptor shows, and a Live Songbird Banding, with kids being offered Bird Face Painting and Migration Games. You can purchase your tickets online at Greenwich.audubon.org/events
