High and far migrant raptors
Can you identify the migrants in the center of the cirrus? Take a look…a hard look…a really deep look…and you’ll find there are four black dots. This is not dust on your screen. In the very middle of this photo there is one bird to the upper right, two close together just under it to the left, and one further to the lower left. Those are Bald Eagles…yes, massive Bald Eagles. Perspective is everything. And hawk watching is not easy – imagine trying to find smaller birds like Sharp-shinned Hawks at that height!
Read MoreBoothe Park Hawk Watch 9/12 – 182 migrant raptors
We had a decent day at the Boothe Park Hawk Watch in Stratford, Connecticut yesterday, considering the deep blue sky in control, as we tallied 182 migrant raptors filling in the 9:30-4:30 time frame. Having no clouds in the sky makes it very difficult to spot hawks, eagles, falcons, vultures and so forth flying at altitudes in the thousands of feet. Light clouds, especially cirrus, provide a helpful backdrop to view them on without obscuring any or dumping precipitation which would stop the birds from moving south. In essence many migrants likely flew by right over our heads that we could...
Read MoreLive hawk watching
Live from the Boothe Park Hawk Watch on lovely and perfect day for raptor migration…except for the total lack of clouds! That means we can’t see much but we have seen 14 Bald Eagle migrants and 10 more local birds with a lot of visitors stopping by, learning about hawks and avian migration.
Read MoreBald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
Keeping it cool again today here’s a Bald Eagle flying through heavy lake effect snow – happy 4th!
Read MoreDiving ducks
This past weekend I visited the extremely active Dunkirk Harbor in Dunkirk, New York. It is currently holding thousands of ducks and gulls because just about all of Lake Erie is frozen and this immediate area is kept open by the warm water from the outflow of the adjacent NRG Energy power plant. This particularly frigid year means even more birds than usual are concentrated in this pocket of heat allowing for some great birding and close-up views, especially while birds are feeding and active. I took a few of photos of diving ducks – can you identify any? The first two photos are of...
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