As I walked home from work along Spencer Road around 5:30pm I heard a doubled, high, thin squeal. In either a reflection on my hearing or on my unfamiliarity with calls which I don't hear often, I wondered whether it was a Broad-winged Hawk or a partially-heard Rusty Blackbird. The sky view there was blocked by trees, and these woods were not swampy, but a steep hillside with a stream tumbling down in its own miniature gorge. I didn't find the source of the squeals then, but the next time I heard it my sky was more open, and I saw a Buteo circling over the Titus Flats neighborhood. Binoculars revealed the whitish underside of its body and wings with a narrow dark border, and a gray head/neck/throat. Its tail was too large, proportionately, for a Red-tail, and dark below, broken by two broad crisp white stripes. This was plenty to ID the BROAD-WINGED HAWK, but the finishing touch for me was when it set its wings for a long deliberate glide into the woods of South Hill, so the rear edge of its wings formed a straight line while the forward edge of each wing made a curve: a nice big capital B.
--Dave Nutter
On Apr 16, 2013, at 06:28 AM, Brad Walker <edgarallenhoo...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,Jay McGowan and I (later joined by Kevin McGowan) did an hour long hawkwatch, that Ken referred to, at Sapsucker Woods yesterday. We had a few BROAD-WINGED HAWKS, several SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS, AMERICAN KESTRELS, NORTHERN HARRIER, BALD EAGLE, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, and COMMON LOON and other migrants.The full list can be found here: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13757266- BradOn Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 12:29 AM, Kenneth V. Rosenberg <k...@cornell.edu> wrote:I'm surprised others haven't posted the results of various sky counts today. Mine started with an adult BROAD-WINGED HAWK circling over the Northeast Ithaca neighborhood, and at least 5 more streaming over as I walked from the parking lots o the Lab of O.Heading out for a late lunch and seeing that Mt. Sapsucker was adequately covered (but what did they see?), I grabbed a sandwich and headed behind the Ithaca airport to skywatch. Surprisingly I saw no more Broad-wings, but I did have a migrating RED-SHOULDERED AND A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. The strangest sighting though was a shimmering flock of birds high against the blue sky — I got therein the scope and they were 9 breeding-plumage BONAPARTE's GULLS circling high overhead.Also back near the north end of Mohawk Rd. I saw a male sapsucker that had a clear red spot on the nape — otherwise didm' look too differentKENKen RosenbergConservation Science ProgramCornell Lab of Ornithology159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.Ithaca, NY 14850(wk) 607-254-2412(cell) 607-342-4594--Cayugabirds-L List Info:Archives:Please submit your observations to eBird!----Cayugabirds-L List Info:Archives:Please submit your observations to eBird!--
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