Hawk Watch

Looking northwest towards Gotham-Metropolis; the birds come cruising along from the right.

It’s no Hawk Mountain or Veracruz, Mexico, where thousands of North America’s Broad-winged hawks squeeze by on their way south, but I’ve never been to those places, and home is where the raptor is. Or at least just passing through, following the coast along the barrier beach of the Rockaways to the south-east.

For just over an hour yesterday morning, some thirty raptors flew by the platform atop the old gun emplacement at Fort Tilden. An average of one every two minutes. We saw: 3 Osprey; 1 Peregrine; 1 (or more) Northern Harrier (this cinnamon-bellied juvenile might have been a local); a bunch of accipiters, mostly Sharp-shinned with a few Cooper’s; and lots of the two little falcon species, Kestrels (mostly) and Merlins. Some cruised near the beach, others over the woods on the bay side, and some right past the platform. Seeing one after another sharpens one’s identification skills, especially in distinguishing the Coopers from the Sharp-shinned and the Merlins from the Kestrels.

Otherwise, Fort Tilden was awash in Northern Flickers and Yellow-rumped warblers. It’s a wonder I wasn’t hit by one.

This White-breasted Nuthatch, meanwhile, paused on the platform to watch us for a change.