Putney Mountain Hawkwatch - September

There were plenty of Broad-winged Hawks during September, and lots of hawk nerds to watch them. Photo ops of the hawks were limited, so the watchers filled the photo role ...

... beginning with our "Leader" - leader to the degree that the odd group can be led anywhere on anything ...

Plenty to watch when the hawks are not flying ... such as these Cedar Waxwings. The top of the pine was surrounded by swarms of insects. The waxwings perched on the branches and plucked the insects out of the air ...

Cedar Waxwings

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Broad-winged Hawk

Watermelon Day

Broad-winged Hawk kettle

Good Birding!

Broad-winged Hawks - Putney Mountain

The Broad-winged Hawk flight exploded over Putney Mountain on Saturday (1100+), then continued on Sunday (1300+) and today (800+ when I left at 4:30).

A few images from the last three days at Vermont's only full-time hawk watch ...

Hawk Watchers count a kettle over the Connecticut River Valley

A small kettle of "broadies" - 20 birds ride the thermal up

Broad-winged Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

While the flight of "broadies" continued to be impressive today, the highlight for the day was the passage of five Bald Eagles in a 15 minute period - 4 adults and one hatch year bird ...

Bald Eagle

 It's still too early to be counting Turkey Vultures as migrating. They roost in Brattleboro and Bellows Falls then wander north, south, south, north, or wherever. But these masters of the wind currents are always fun to watch, and today they were flying low ...

Turkey Vulture

Good Birding!!

Putney Mountain - the early season Hawk Watch

After last year's record hawk watch season, no one has been expecting this year to be nearly as good, and those expectations have been met. The early season has been dismal. Beastly hot weather and rain/thunderstorms virtually shut down the flight this week. Today was sort of a clearing day, and the birds began to move, but they were often distant and required eye strain to find and count.

A few images ...

Bald Eagles - always stunning, always stately and magnificent. This one flew low over the site on Monday ...

Bald Eagle - adult

 Broad-winged Hawks are the predominant species during mid-September, and today they began their flight, although it was not until mid afternoon that numbers started flying, and often they were distant kettles. As of this post, the count had not been totaled, but it will be in the 600+ range. The bird in the next photo was seen on Wednesday - "ratty" in appearance, but apparently because it was still growing its new feathers ...

Broad-winged Hawk

 Early today, a Sharp-shinned Hawk put on an "attitude show" as it made repeated attacks on the plastic owl decoy ...

Sharp-shinned Hawk - hatch year

 Between hawk sightings, there was the occasional butterfly, such as this American Copper ...

American Copper

 In general, the day required persistent searching to find distant kettles ...

 

... but, as always, there are those times of good conversation, plus the annual sharing of cupcakes for a birthday, and the sweet fruit of the earth's bounty ...

... and finally ... a young hawk watcher looks for hawks ...

 
Good Birding!!

Broadwing Bonaza

Friday yielded another large flight of Broad-winged Hawks over Putney Mountain, resulting in a total site count 45-50% greater than any previous year (at least according to my unofficial records).

Here's a sampling of images from the day.

Broad-winged Hawks led the way ...

Broad-winged Hawk - adult

Broad-winged Hawk - juvenile

Broad-winged Hawk - adult

Other hawks were also on the move, including this low flying Sharp-shinned Hawk ...

Sharp-shinned Hawk - juvenile

Some of the hawks were low enough to be easily seen. They provided many moments of excitement for the students who came to the ridge for an outdoor classroom.

A hawk watcher of the future?

With so many hawks overhead, including some hungry accipters, this Northern Flicker headed for deeper cover ...

Northern Flicker

Good birding!

Merlin et al - Putney Mtn.

The hawk flight this afternoon was fairly quiet until a Merlin went on the attack - shattering the somnolence of the watchers and creating a buzz which lasted long after it disappeared over the ridge ...

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Plus ... a sampling of other images from the last two days ...

Red-tailed Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Good birding!

Flight of the Broadies - Putney Mtn

Wednesday, September 12, was a banner day for Broad-winged Hawk flight on Putney Mountain with over 1400 birds having been counted by the time I had to leave at 4:00pm.

Kettles of 20 t0 250 birds rose out of the Connecticut River Valley. The birds were often just distant the specks, but their numbers made it look as if Zeus sprinkling pepper from a pepper shaker, spicing up his afternoon meal, and certainly spicing the sky for the hawk watchers.

A few Broad-wings even came over at eye level. Blue sky and bright sun then provided some good photo opportunities ...

Broad-winged Hawk - juvenile

Broad-winged Hawk - juvenile

Broad-winged Hawk - adult

Broad-winged Hawk - adult

Mid-afternoon, eagles drifted lazily over the ridge (eagles plural!). An adult and two sub-adult Bald Eagles dwarfed the circling Broadies nearby ...

Bald Eagle - adult

Bald Eagle (2nd year)

Turkey Vultures wander up and down the ridge, but it is much too early for them to be counted. This one drifted over the ridge, occasionally doing a lazy wing adjustment and providing a different view of this familiar big black bird ...

Turkey Vulture - juvenile

Putney Mountain Hawk Watch also counts Blue Jays, in part because they move early before the hawks have taken to the wing ...

Blue Jay

A day of superb birding! Hope you have a good one today!

Blogging post-Irene & a bird

The peaceful, gentle, mountain streams which flow through my village of South Newfane became raging rivers with the torrential rains of Hurricane Irene, destroying roads, bridges, homes.

This last week, I spoke with a photographer neighbor about the impossibility of capturing a two dimensional image of the damage. She agreed. To grasp the damage requires three dimensions and 360 degrees. Even so, I have tried.

The recovery work that has been done throughout Vermont is remarkable. All major roads are open (or will be in a few days). In my village heavy construction equipment has worked with remarkable dispatch to restore the roads, although they are still for locals only.

In the previous post, the second photo shows one of the road washouts. Here is the same washout two weeks post-Irene, Sept 11, crews working all day Sunday.

The same stretch of washout was back to grade and passable two days later. If the report I heard (much info goes word of mouth), it will receive the first asphalt in a few more days.

Thousands of yards of material have been needed to rebuild the roads. A few hundred feet east of the previous washout was another large washout. The Rock River (normally just a modest stream) had widened its bed. With the river bed scoured clean, no further environmental damage could be done to aquatic life. Normal regulations were suspended, and building material was taken from the river to rebuild the banks and roadbeds. Here is some of that work being done on
Sunday, Sept 11. Construction trucks such as these are not a normal sight in our neighborhood or roadways.

This next photo shows the same stretch of river bed and roadway seen in the previous photo. This was taken Sunday, Sept 18 - a rough but passable road, with the heavy equipment now working in a different area.

With all of the disruption of the present, I nevertheless took a day off for something normal - a few hours of hawk watching on Putney Mountain. It was Sept 16, the day when Prognosticator Phil guarantees at least 500 migrating hawks. With Golden Eagle and Bald Eagle, a few accipiters and falcons, and a reasonably good flight of Broad-winged Hawks, it was a time of needed mental and emotional therapy.

Broad-winged Hawk - Putney Mountain, September 16

More soon.